Halifax W7819 at Lindholme airfield.
On the evening of 8th March 1944 this 1656 Heavy Conversion Unit aircraft was flown on a training flight that saw the pilot fly a number of his first few solo circuits in the Halifax type. At 22.41hrs the aircraft landed at Lindholme airfield with the undercarriage retracted. The AM Form 1180 states that the pilot later stated that the undercarriage down was selected but the light indicators in the cockpit that should have showed that the undercarriage had locked down did not light up, he then stated that the flight engineer checked the legs and found that they were down. The investigators dis-regarded this and stated that there was a possibility that the crew had pushed the undercarriage lever down after the belly landing, suggesting perhaps that they had belly-landed in error.
Pilot - WO John David Rees RAFVR (1331412).