Halifax JP130 at Dishforth airfield.
On the night of 25th / 26th August 1944 this 1664 Heavy Conversion Unit aircraft was to have been flown on a "Spoof Bullseye" flight. This was in support of the main Bomber Command operations on Russelsheim and Darmstadt with a dummy flight of training aircraft bombers flying a different route to confuse German radar as to the intended target. The aircraft took off from Dishforth at 21.57hrs but immediately after taking off the starboard outer engine failed and caught fire when the aircraft had climbed to just 500 feet off the ground. The crew attempted to make an emergency landing a few minutes later. On the approach to land and fifty feet off the ground the pilot lost control of the aircraft and it hit the ground, it then skidded across the airfield and a fire spread across the aircraft. All on board appear to have escaped injury.
Pilot - F/O Jesse Edwin Cox DFC RCAF (J/16156).