Date & Time:
Apr 14, 1943 at 1610 LT
Type of aircraft:
Vickers 440 Wellington X
Operator:
Registration:
HZ303
Flight Phase:
Flight
Flight Type:
Test
Survivors:
No
Site:
City
Schedule:
Leeming - Leeming
Country:
United Kingdom
Region:
Europe
Crew on board:
5
Crew fatalities:
5
Pax on board:
0
Pax fatalities:
0
Other fatalities:
3
Total fatalities:
8
Circumstances:
The crew departed RAF Leeming at 1510 on a test flight. One hour later, while flying at an altitude of 1,000 feet, the airplane entered an uncontrolled descent and crashed into two houses located in the center of Huntington, in the north outskirts of York, bursting into flames. All five crew members as well as three people in the houses were killed.
Crew:
F/O Charles William Gilbert Gray, pilot,
F/O Leslie Alexander Walker, navigator,
Sgt Cyril Marr, bomb aimer,
Sgt Willie Jackson Whittaker, wireless operator,
F/Sgt Robert Ernest Clark, air gunner.
Those killed on the ground were:
Miss Jane Raby Freer,
Mrs Henrietta Morley,
Miss Clara Jane Pickard.
Crew:
F/O Charles William Gilbert Gray, pilot,
F/O Leslie Alexander Walker, navigator,
Sgt Cyril Marr, bomb aimer,
Sgt Willie Jackson Whittaker, wireless operator,
F/Sgt Robert Ernest Clark, air gunner.
Those killed on the ground were:
Miss Jane Raby Freer,
Mrs Henrietta Morley,
Miss Clara Jane Pickard.
Probable cause:
The aircraft was so badly destroyed that the cause of the loss of control was impossible to determine, although a sudden engine failure or mechanical failure was not ruled out which resulted in the pilot loosing control.
