Halifax LW480 at Hemingbrough.
On 5th April 1945 the crew of this 1658 Heavy Conversion Unit aircraft took off from Riccall airfield at 13.45hrs with the crew undertaking a training flight. Soon after leaving the ground both starboard engines cut out and then caught fire. The pilots or flight engineer could not then feather the engines so ten minutes after leaving the ground the instructor made a belly landing in a field just west of Hemingbrough at 13.55hrs. The crew escaped injury and got clear of the aircraft before the fire spread to the fuselage. The National Archives hold the AIB report for the incident within "AVIA5/24" which I have yet to read but would indicate a technical problem caused the incident. The site location is pretty obvious even today because of a widely published photograph that show the crashed aircraft in the field with Hemingbrough church in the background. To confirm whether anything remained in the field Eric Barton, Albert Pritchard, Eric Barton and Ken Reast sought permission from the landowner and located small fragments on the surface of the field in August 2002 to confirm the location.
Instructor Pilot - F/O Hugh Drummond Melville DFC RAFVR (179582).
Trainee Pilot - F/O N J Morse RCAF (J/37835).
Navigator - F/O J A Hagan RCAF (J/42673).
Bomb Aimer - Sgt R K Moore RCAF (R/213966).
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - F/O A J McIvor RCAF (J/46259).
Flight Engineer - Sgt Joseph Valentine Cyril Jacob RAFVR (1897715).
Air Gunner - F/Sgt L S Nicol RCAF (R/215575).
Air Gunner - F/O H G Fairhead RCAF (J/4702). Slightly injured in escaping the rear turret.
The area of the crash as seen in 2010 when Eric Barton located the landowner and was given permission to access the field.
Hugh Drummond was awarded the DFC for service with 578 Squadron, Gazetted in November 1944. By early 1945 he had been posted to instruct at 1658 Heavy Conversion Unit. He was onboard Halifax NR281 on 20th February 1945 when it crashed at Riccall.
