Mosquito NF.30 NT423 near Finningley.
On Sunday, 13th June 1948 this 616 Squadron was one of three flown in formation to Tangmere and back to Finningley. All three took off from Finningley at 10.25hrs with F/O McCairns piloting it and F/O Wilburn as navigator and landed at Tangmere at 12.25hrs. All three then had two hours on the ground and took off from Tangmere at 14.25hrs to return to Finningley where they landed at 15.15hrs. At 15.25hrs it then took off again for a short "acceptance flight" lasting twenty minutes with F/Lt R M Pugh AFC flying it. McCairns then took off at 16.15hrs in it for and engine test with a fitter as passenger. I have yet to view any accident report or documentation that relates to what happened in the air prior to it being flown on this final flight. I would expect there to have been a problem with it and the fitter was flying as passenger to either inspect or attempt to locate an issue with it found earlier in the day. Once airborne for this test flight a glycol leak in the port engine developed leading to it overheating. The engine was shut down and the aeroplane overflew the airfield at Finningley, once beyon the airfield the speed was seen to drop, it then rolled over to become inverted and crashed a mile east of airfield from the northern boundary. Both airmen in the aeroplane were killed. The crash location must have been very close to not being in Yorkshire but the deaths registered "Don Valley district, Yorkshire" which suggests they died in Yorkshire.
Pilot - F/O James Atterby McCairns DFC and 2 Bars, MM RAF (125754). Aged 28, Area manager of Clark's of Retford. Buried Retford Cemetery, Nottinghamshire (CC.81).
Passenger / Fitter - AC2 Edward Shaw RAFVR (2321296), aged 19, of Hill Top, Newcastle. Buried Dipton Cemetery, Newcastle.
The pilot's life has been well documented on the "aircrewremembered.com" website. In brief; he was made a PoW on 6th July 1941 when Spitfire P8500 of 616 Squadron crash landed in France. He subsequently escaped from captivity and evaded capture to return to the UK. For this he was awarded the Military Medal. He resumed operational flying and for service with 161 Squadron he was awarded the DFC three times for various SOE operations.