Valetta T.3 WJ467 near Little Fencote.

On 6th August 1958 the pilots of this No.228 Operational Conversion Unit aircraft were carrying out a training exercise that involved shutting down one of the engines in the air and then undertaking a series of practice single engine approaches to land at Leeming airfield and then flying overshoots. After flying one of the overshoots the working engine then failed. The pilot and second pilot did not have the time or height to restart the other engine so were left to make a forced landing a couple of miles north-west of the airfield. The resulting belly landing in a cornfield west of Little Fencote just missed the A1 road and it skidded to halt near Holtby Hall.

Pilot - Perry.

Second Pilot - Name unknown.

I received an email from the pilot's son in 2010 but I forgot to ask what his father's name was. His son stated that he believed that the aircraft was recovered and was in the process of being transported to Marshalls at Cambridge for repair when it fell off a Queen Mary lorry in York.

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