On 24th March 1956 this 608 Squadron aircraft took off from Thornaby airfield but soon after clearing the airfield the engine failed. Having reached a point to the north of the airfield the pilot appears to have turned around to make for Thornaby airfield but height was lost. It crossed Downside Road at an estimated height of around 200 feet, passed over what was then Levick playing field and crossed Mandale Road. It appears to have then been force landed in a field between Stainsby Hill Farm and Farley Drive, Acklam having (possibly) clipped a tree just before the landing was made. In 2011 I was contacted by a witness to the incident, Chris Johnson, he was one of a number of children playing on Levick field at the time and witnessed the landing. He and some friends ran to the aeroplane and he believed that a man from Farley Drive arrived and helped the pilot who appeared to have only suffered superficial cuts. The aircraft was largely intact and suffered some "looting" from those who had arrived at the scene, it remained in the field for a couple of days before the RAF removed it. The site escaped the developers when the A19 road was built just west of where the forced landing was made.

Pilot - F/O H Bates RAF.