Mosquito T.3 RR292 near Garton on the Wolds.
During the night of Tuesday, 29th June 1948 this No.204 Advanced Flying School aircraft was being flown on a single engine flying training exercise. The pilot was attempting to practice overshooting a landing at Driffield airfield in rain when the aircraft failed to gain height after making the overshoot. Railway crossing keeper Arthur Dick, of Arram, was feeding chickens in his garden at Garton Green Lane railway crossing house when saw the Mosquito hit the ground near the end of the runway, bounce back into the air and a fire break out. Having then seen it crash he ran to the site, around 100 yards from him, but the fire prevented him from doing anything. The crash tender from the airfield arrived a short time later and put out the fire but those on board were killed. The pupil pilot was probably at the controls when it crashed. Subsequently the investigation found rain on the windscreen may have affected the pilot's visibility and that both propllers were found set at a coarse pitch; the dead engine was therefore causing drag while the good engine was not providing the power it was capable of.
Pilot (Instructor) - F/Lt John Birch RAF (195089), aged 27. Buried Driffield Cemetery, Yorkshire (6239).
Pilot (Pupil) - P.IV Maurice Alfred Johnson RAF (3000597), aged 22 of Bexley Heath, Kent. Burial location not known.
John Birch's grave at Driffield Cemetery.
