Halifax DT546 at Topcliffe airfield.
During the afternoon of 29th August 1944 this 1659 Heavy Conversion Unit aircraft was to have been flown on a circuits and landings training flight using Topcliffe airfield. The exercise would have been the first such solo exercise for the trainee pilot. At 13.15hrs the aircraft swung violently on take off, left the runway and into soft ground causing the undercarriage to collapse after a ground loop. It transpired that the trainee pilot had earlier been given the wrong instructions for taking off.
Pilot - P/O Albert Joseph Martel RCAF (J/88173).