Spitfire TD403 at Leconfield airfield.
On 3rd December 1945 the undercarriage of this Central Gunnery School aircraft failed to lock down prior to a landing at Leconfield airfield following a training exercise. On landing at 11.15hrs one of the undercarriage legs collapsed. An invesigation found that a small fragment of granite stone chipping was wedged between the chain and the teeth of a sprocket in the undercarriage mechanism and that the stone fragment had probably come from the runway or the perimeter track which had been covered in the loose chippings.
Pilot - F/O Derek Geoffrey Lovell RAFVR (185974).