Halifax NR203 near Myton on Swale.
During the evening of 21st November 1944 this 429 Squadron aircraft was flown on a cross country training flight. Various details surrounding the flight are not yet known and this includes the time the aircraft took off from Leeming airfield. In flight the starboard outer engine failed. The pilot later stated that he was unable to feather the propeller on this engine and also that the aileron control also locked. Eventually control was lost so the pilot ordered the crew to bale out. One of the crew sustained foot injuries on landing. The aircraft crashed near Haddocks Farm, Myton on Swale at 19.30hrs.
Confirmed crew..
Pilot - F/O W A Thomas RCAF (J/87398).
Air Gunner - P/O John Vernon Sheardown RCAF (J/98145). Injured foot.
Air Gunner - F/Sgt Paul Mytruk RCAF (R/217311).
Possible crew..
Navigator - Sgt Frederick Garfield Zaharia RCAF (R/123860).
Air Bomber - Sgt J B Higgins RCAF (R/76451).
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt W C Jackson RCAF (R/203887).
Flight Engineer - Sgt Derrick Edmund Kean RAFVR (1818586).
Various aviation archaeologists were asked to help with the licenced dig at the crash site in the early 2000s who carried out a magnetometer survey and helped with the recovery. The group an amount of wreckage including two engines which were subsequently retained by the landowner. The three photographs showing the engines in the farm were taken by Eric Barton when he visited the farm.
One of the engines was later mounted to a trailer and is taken around the area to various events.
John Sheardown's life is reasonably well documented on the internet though at some stage one account must have written stating that he served in the RCAF as a pilot flying Lancasters and sustained his injuries baling out of one he was piloting. This is not correct and because some people cannot be bothered to research for themselves the error has been copied to numerous other websites including Wikipedia.
