During the night of 12th / 13th August 1944 this 578 Squadron aircraft took off from Burn airfield and was flown on a Bullseye training flight. During the flight the aircraft's port inner engine failed and was shut down. The crew appear to have not been able to maintain height so made an approach to land at Finningley but they did not allow enough time for the undercarriage to lower prior to landing. At 01.15hrs they landed at Finningley but as the starboard undercarriage was not locked down it collapsed. This incident is recorded in the 18 O.T.U. / Finningley station record book.
Pilot - F/O Bevis Denton Davies RAFVR (128846).
On 17th August 1944 the 18 O.T.U. / Finningley station record book goes on to record that this same aircraft made an emergency landing at Finningley after suffering port engine failure. One could assume that the undercarriage cannot have been the seriously damaged four days earlier for it to be flown on this date. The aircraft's AM Form 78 states that a damage assessment of Cat.Ac/FA damage was made on 14th August 1944 and that it took until 2nd September 1944 for it to be returned to 578 Squadron charge.