Halifax DK204 at Pocklington airfield.
On the night of 9th / 10th August 1944 this 1663 Heavy Conversion Unit aircraft was flown on a circuits and landings training exercise. Halifax LK700 had crashed and caught fire around a mile from the southern end of the runway at Rufforth where 1663 H.C.U. were based and the fire would have taken a time to put out. I presume that while this would have been burning the crew of DK204 were probably already in the air so were ordered to divert to Pocklington airfield to carry out their exercise. The exercise at Pocklington was carried out until 01.05hrs when the aircraft began to enter a swing during one of the landings. The pilot did not correct the swing and the aircraft left the runway it was on and eventually ran onto one of the other runways that was by this date un-used. Small and sharp stones littered this runway and the port tyre was punctured. The AM Form 1180 states that flint caused the damage but flint is not a stone that exists naturally here. The burst port tyre resulted in the undercarriage collapsing before it came to a halt.
Pilot - F/O Ernest Lancaster RAFVR (138294).