On 30th September 1944 this 42 OTU aircraft took of from Ashbourne airfield to undertake a training flight. At 21.32hrs the aircraft was two and a half hours into the flight when the aircraft crashed in the Goole area, believed to have been in the area of Airmyn / Boothferry Bridge. On impact the aircraft caught fire and all on board were sadly killed. The exact cause of the crash was not discovered although the crew were found to be wearing their parachutes and that one of the propeller blades was feathered suggesting that one of the engines had probably failed earlier in the flight. It appeared that the aircraft had stalled, the pilot lost control and it then crashed before anyone could escape from the aircraft. Had the crew completed their training at 42 OTU they would have been posted into an squadron operating SOE flights within No.38 Group. Notably this was the very last fatal Whitley accident to have occurred in Yorkshire.
Pilot - F/Sgt George Pigott RAFVR (1564236), aged 28, wife of Penicuik, Midlothian. Cremated Edinburgh (Warriston) Crematorium.
Bomb Aimer - Sgt Daniel Hannan RAFVR (1673056), aged 21, of Blackley, Manchester. Buried Moston RC Cemetery, Lancashire.
Navigator - Sgt Maurice Silver RAFVR (1284558), aged 32, of Luton, Bedfordshire. Buried Willesden Jewish Cemetery, Middlesex.
Air Gunner - Sgt Hector Clayton Chaffey RAFVR (798757), aged 21, of Musgravetown, Newfoundland. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire (E/E/19).
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Alan Frederick West RAFVR (1811047), aged 20, of King's Lynn. Buried King's Lynn Cemetery, Norfolk.
Hector Chaffey's grave in Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery.