Mosquito FB.VI RS521 off Dimlington.

On Friday, 23rd April 1949 two Central Gunnery School aircraft undertook a training exercise that saw a trainee pilot in one aircraft make mock attacks on another acting as a target aircraft over the coastal area near Spurn Point. The target aircraft was piloted by P.3 Brian Stansfield who gave evidence at the inquest of the other pilot. The attacking aircraft had already made several attacks on the target at around midday by the time it made what became it's final one. While pulling away from making an attack the forces on the airframe were too great and the attacking aircraft broke up in the air. Most of the aircraft crashed into the North Sea, around 200 yards from "Dimlington Tower" and this included the cockpit. One of the engines fell on the cliffs near Dimlington (just North of Easington) and I include this incident on this website because it is therefore on land and in Yorkshire. Most of Dimlington has been lost to coastal erosion since 1949 including what I suspect was "Dimlington Tower".

Pilot - F/O John Hope RAF (59231), aged 24. Buried Leconfield Churchyard, Yorkshire.

The pilot's body was washed ashore at Spurn Point on 30th April 1949. He was buried locally to where the Central Gunnery School was based at Leconfield. He was originally from Singapore.