In the early hours of 20th May 1950 this 23 Squadron aircraft was flown on a night training exercise that saw thew crew undertake practice night interceptions, which would have seen them vectored onto target aircraft by either a ground controller or by the equipment carried in the aircraft. At around 03.00hrs and after two hours of flying the crew were returning to Church Fenton airfield in low cloud and had joined the landing circuit. While flying to the south of the airfield while in the landing circuit the pilot made a turn and descended to break cloud but the aircraft appears to have been flying at the wrong height and it flew into the ground. It struck the ground with the undercarriage lowered roughly half a mile due south of Little Fenton and largely stayed intact but both airmen were injured. The photograph shown above is said to be of RL257 after this incident.
Pilot - P.3 Michael Crawford Gray RAF (2238633). Injured.
Navigator - N.3 Herbert Royd Scott RAF (3110079). Minor injuries.