Halifax B.III MZ582 near Nether Poppleton.

On 17th September 1945 this No.1665 Heavy Transport Conversion Unit aircraft was to have been flown on a night cross country training exercise and took off from Marston Moor airfield just before 22.00hrs. The aircraft managed to climb away and reached a thousand feet when the throttle lever controlling the starboard outer engine jammed. The crew had to shut down the starboard outer engine. In all probability were probably then making back to Marston Moor and had lost height to just 300 feet when the starboard inner engine then failed. Unable to keep flying the pilot made a forced landing in a field near Woodhouse Farm between Nether Poppleton and Moor Monkton. Four of the crew sustained injuries. The names of those are listed in the Marston Moor station record book but under surname and the last three digits of their service numbers and using AIR78 on the National Archives website it has been possible to probably identify those completed below. Those not confirmed will be in the same file series but I have not been able to find as various pages are very poorly copied.

Pilot (instructor) - W/O Ronald William Sargant RAFVR (1338894). Shoulder injuries.

Pilot (pupil) - W/O D J Thomas RAFVR (1285898). Broken right arm.

Wireless Operator - Sgt D Hufton ("..116"). Minor injuries.

Flight Engineer - F/Sgt George William Moyce RAFVR (1802968). Leg injuries.

Air Bomber - Sgt Kenneth Herbert Pragnell RAFVR (1868357).

Flight Engineer - Sgt Norman Neil Day RAFVR (1864315).

Air Gunner - F/Sgt Maitland Eric Strong RAFVR (1493999).

Navigator - W/O Joseph William Barnfather RAFVR (939216?).