Halifax LV839 at Skipton on Swale airfield.
During the afternoon of 17th March 1944 this 433 Squadron aircraft was to have been flown on a cross country training flight that involved the use of radar but on take off from Skipton on Swale airfield the port main tyre burst. The burst appears to have occurred when the undercarriage was retracted too soon after leaving the ground, and / or the aircraft then appears to have dropped slightly once becoming airborne and the tyre clipped the ground next to the runway. After a thirty minute flight the crew landed at Skipton on Swale at 15.15hrs but the aircraft swung off the runway and the undercarriage was damaged.
Pilot - F/Sgt James Malcolm Monahan RCAF (R/50158).