Halifax HX153 at Rufforth airfield.
During the afternoon of 8th June 1944 this 1663 Heavy Conversion Unit aircraft was flown a circuit and landings training exercise at Rufforth airfield which was the trainee pilot's first solo flight in a Halifax. While flying in the circuit of the airfield the port outer engine began to emit a shower of white sparks. The crew shut down the engine and feathered the propeller. Unfortunately a problem with the port inner engine then saw the crew having to shut that engine down and feather that propeller. The aircraft then began to loose height and the crew were ordered to belly land quickly on the airfield but as the pilot could not turn the aircraft to port the aircraft simply lost height over the airfield's dispersed buildings sites on the northern side of the airfield. At 13.23hrs the tail wheel struck the station sick quarters building and remained on the roof just before the aircraft crashed into a field near other communal building sites. It caught fire on crashing and of the five man crew on board three sustained minor injuries. The crash site was almost certainly lost to a large landfill site post-war.
Pilot - Sgt Irwin Rebick RCAF (R/175496).