Buccaneer S.1 XK524 near Holme on Spalding Moor.

On Thursday, 13th May 1965 the Buccaneer aircraft was being flown over the Holme on Spalding Moor airfield area as part of a series of test flights made by the Hawker Siddeley Aviation company who had taken on the devlopment of the Buccaneer type from Blackburn Aircraft Ltd after their merger. This test flight was to test wing loading / lift trials. During a low level part of the flight the airbrake was retracted with the flaps down. Unfortunately the pilot lost tailplane control. The nose of the aircraft pointed toward the ground so the crew ejected. The aircraft crashed around fifty yards from Lock Lane, a long road leading east from Holme on Spalding Moor down to Land of Nod farm. One of the crew landed near several disused brick ponds (near the farm) and the other landed a short distance away. The location is also given as "Laverick's Field" though the spelling may be Laverack owing to the family name having been in the area for some years.

This became the first successful ejection through the canopy of a Buccaneer, several years earlier the crew of Buccaneer XK486 ejected but after the pilot opted to jettison the canopy rather than to eject through it.

Pilot - Lt Cmdr Paul Millett RN.

Flight Test Observer - Mr Geoffrey Harris.