Heyford K3494 near Bessingby.
During the morning of 19th January 1939 this 148 Squadron aeroplane took off from Stradishall, Suffolk with the crew to undertaking a reconnaissance flight to the Humber before returning to base. Owing to fog and heavy rain the crew became lost and found themselves over East Yorkshire. At 11.00hrs the pilot made two attempts to land on the seventeenth fairway of Bridlington Golf Course, on the south side of Bridlington, and narrowly missed the club house each time. Eventually the pilot selected a turnip field between Carnaby and Bessingby which must have been on the Bessingby side of the railway line. It clipped trees and then passed through a hedge before coming to rest in the turnip field with minor damage. Owing to the heavy rain the field became flooded and while the damage was minimal it was deemed unsuitable to take off from the field. The Bridlington RNLI launch tractor was requisitioned to tow the damaged aeroplane from the waterlogged field into a much drier field so two hedges were cut down and it was towed nearer to Bessingby where it was dismantled. Purely by looking at historic mapping and for the field to be waterlogged I would guess the aeroplane force landed close to the railwayline and initially in the large field opposite what is now a sewerage works, coming to rest in the small field to the west, having passed through the ajoining hedge. The photograph above shows the aeroplane once it had been moved nearer to Bessingby.
Pilot - F/O Charles Sidney Harold Richardson RAF (37481).
Three other crew - Names unknown.
