Mosquito T.3 RR286 near Stillington.
During the morning of 15th June 1946 the crew on this No.54 Operational Training Unit aircraft were undertaking single engined flying practice. Forty eight minutes into the flight the port engine had
been feathered but when the engine was unfeathered as part of the training the engine failed to pick up. As the aircraft was flying low at the time and I suspect it was on its way back to base, the pilot had no height available to do anything but belly-land the aircraft. At 09.43hrs the aircraft was force-landed in a carrot field near Stillington, and within ground then part of Stillington Park. Both airmen were uninjured. The aircraft received a Cat.B/FA damage assessment and was taken away for a repair in a works factory, this however was never completed as on 3rd July 1946 the damage was re-assessed, upgraded to Re-Cat.E and struck off charge.
Pilot - S/Ldr Hugh Aitchison Green Smith RAFVR (41622).
Pilot - F/Lt Stanley Arthur Durrant RAFVR (161070).
In July 2011 I met with Stillington resident Mr John Swallow who remembered this incident occurring, he kindly
took me to the crash site and gave me a piece of the aircraft that was left behind after the RAF cleared the
site. The aircraft crashed into the field in the photograph shown above coming to rest in the foreground.
The large part was found at the site at the time of the incident and had been in his farm buildings ever since,
one end of the tube was removed some years ago and used for another purpose on his farm but the remaining section
is in good condition. After light cleaning the Mosquito part number sequence stands out reasonably well and shows
the DH.98 Mosquito "G98" prefix; the letter "G" refers to the item being part of the Mosquito undercarriage.
Mosquito RR286 was built to contract 1576/SAS/C.23(a) by D.H. Aircraft Ltd, at Leavesden and was awaiting collection in January 1945.
After a short period of MU storage it was taken on charge by 54 Operational Training Unit at Church Fenton when the unit started to re-equip on 7th February
1945. On 1st November 1945 it moved with the unit to East Moor. On 15th June 1946 it suffered the accident near Stillington as
recorded above and initially was assessed on site and declared repairable with Cat.B/FA but later because of surplus of aircraft in the
initial Post-War period it was Re-Cat.E2/FA and scrapped without repair being carried out.
Hugh Smith received a commission to the rank of P/O in 1939 (there are too many "Smiths" to search
through in Flight Magazine archives for his commission to the rank of Acting P/O on probation).
He was graded as P/O on probation on 3rd September 1939 and P/O on 31st October 1939. He rose
to F/O on 3rd September 1940 and to F/Lt (war subs) exactly a year later but transferred to the
Reserve on 31st October 1942. He relinquished his commission of S/Ldr in the Reserve of Air Force
Officers on 27th June 1947, on appointment to the reconstituted RAFVR but dropped a rank having
taken his war substantive rank of F/Lt but with it converted to a substantive rank. In December
1947 this notification was cancelled and it is not known whether he remained in the Air Force after this date.
F/Lt Durrant is listed in the 54 O.T.U. orb as returning to 85 Squadron on 21st June 1946. On 19th September 1947 he was flying 85 Squadron Mosquito RL203 when it crashed at West Malling, he broke his spine in the crash.
