There had been a suggestion recorded elsewhere that at the time of this incident runway repairs were being carried out at Dishforth airfield where this unit were normally based. While these repairs were being undertaken the unit was relocated to nearby Topcliffe airfield. The accident records make no reference to this and the way all the documentation records, it suggests that the aircraft had taken off from and was using Dishforth airfield for all the stages of this flying training exercise. A fault was previously reported from the TG584's No.4 engine, with a whine being heard, but this was checked and it was passed as normal prior to the flights made on this date. The unit the aircraft was with is given as No.242 Operational Conversion Unit but the accident records not not mention this unit and refer to it as being with the Transport Command Examining Unit.

In the early hours of Tuesday, 13th September 1955 the aircraft was filled with enough fuel to enable over six hours flying time. During the morning it was flown by a different crew and they landed reporting no problems with the aircraft. The crew switched to a different one with the replacement pilot of this aircraft flying it as part of his monthly continuation training. A secretarial officer, who was also the unit adjutant, of Transport Command Examining Unit was granted permisison to travel as a passenger and was seated in the second pilot's seat. They then took off from Dishforth airfield at 12.57hrs. At 14.35hrs the aircraft flew a practice overshoot of Dishforth airfield and flew away to the west. At 14.39hrs the aircraft was seen to be in trouble at less than 3,000 feet above the ground, descending in a spin. The aircraft then crashed in flat spin with no forward speed between Ripon and North Stainley, onto an Army training area between Middle Parks Farm and the River Ure. A fire consumed the majority of the aircraft and all five flying in the Hastings were killed. A detailed examination of the flight and of the wreckage took place. It found that the No.4 propeller was not running at the time of the crash but was not feathered and that the other three propellers were only rotating under low power. It could not be extablished what had caused the experienced pilot to loose control of the aircraft with just a simple engine failure. The Number 4 engine is listed elsewhere in the accident records as being the starboard outer engine.

Pilot - S/Ldr Roy Cox DFC RAF (166341), aged 30. Cremated. Interment location unknown.

Flight Engineer - F/Lt Ronald Rooney DFM RAF (54798), aged 34. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Signaller - F/Sgt Eric Vardy Levesley RAF (1682012), aged 33. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Navigator - Sgt Philip Arthur Peckham RAF (4037259), aged 24. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Passenger - F/O Bernard Christopher Godwin RAF (2469724), aged 23. Buried St.Leonards Churchyard, Heston, Middlesex.

The graves of three airmen killed in this incident and whom were buried at Dishforth Cemetery.

Ronald Rooney's DFM was awarded for service with 640 Squadron, Bomber Command, Gazetted on 18th April 1944.