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| Date: | Wednesday 31 May 1944 |
| Time: | 17:15 |
| Type: |  Short Stirling Mk III |
| Owner/operator: | 1654 HCU RAF |
| Registration: | LK517 |
| MSN: | LK517 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 7 / Occupants: 7 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Co-operative Farm at West Thickley, Shildon, Co.Durham, England -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Wigsley, Lincolnshire |
A Stirling bomber on a training flight from Lincolnshire broke up and crashed on the outskirts Shildon, County Durham, killing the entire crew. The fuselage came down near the Co-op farm. The pilot was Pilot-Officer Stanley Raymond Wilson, of Heaton, Newcastle. According to an eyewitness report:
"Vincent Horan remembers the accident happened at about 5pm on May 31, 1944. A Short Stirling bomber on a training flight from Lincolnshire caught fire and crashed at the Cooperative farm, killing the entire crew.
“I was only five, but my brother was an office boy at the railway works and he saw it circling overhead before it crashed,” says Vincent, who now lives only 400-yards from the crash site.
“We ran over Dabble Duck (an area of grassland now a trading estate) and when we got there, there was quite a crowd. I remember these two ladies and they said ‘they are carrying the bodies out in bags’.”
The pilot was 27-year-old Pilot Officer Stanley Raymond Wilson, who left his parents and his wife, Marguerita, in Newcastle, where he is buried.
The Accident Investigation report (5) reads: ''Broke-up in cloud and crashed 1650 at West Thickley Farm between Middridge and Shildon, 2 miles W of Aycliffe, County Durham. It was considered that the tail assembly had been put under excessive strain and this led to the eventual structural failure.''
At the boundary of Shildron's cricket field (54.627922 / -1.640864) a memorial bench and plaque have been placed to commemorate the crew.
Crew:-
Pilot : Pilot Officer Stanley Raymond Wilson RAFVR 173801 [Killed] of Newcastle;
Flight Engineer : Sergeant Donald Wilfred Curtis RAFVR 1259055 [Killed] of Ebbw Vale, Wales
Navigator : Sergeant Nathaniel Hugh Crawford RAFVR 1545675 [Killed] of Larne, County Antrim
Bomb Aimer : Flying Officer John McCallum Brooks RAFVR 151987 (NCO:1521628 : Commission Gazetted Tuesday 13 July, 1943) [Killed] of Salford
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner : Sergeant Fred Bates RAFVR 1622071 [Killed] of Blackpool
Mid-Upper Gunner : Sergeant Thomas Parr RAFVR 2212825 [Killed] of Droylsden, Manchester
Rear Gunner : Sergeant Walter Joseph Lawton RAFVR 2209661 [Killed] of Liverpool
Sources:
1. http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/history/10548713.The_day_the_plane_fell_from_the_sky/
2. http://www.ne-diary.bpears.org.uk/Inc/ISeq_36.html
3. http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/history/yourmemories/8963973.Landlord_Lancaster_was_larger_than_life/?ref=rss]
4. CWGC 5. International Bomber Command Centre - losses database.
5. Rob Davis Bomber Command Losses Database
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 12-Jan-2015 15:19 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
| 20-Aug-2018 16:50 | Davepot | Updated [Operator, ] |
| 27-Dec-2018 21:56 | Nepa | Updated [Operator, Operator, ] |
| 29-May-2024 12:21 | Nepa | Updated [Time, Cn, Location, Narrative, Operator, ] |
| 29-May-2024 12:31 | Nepa | Updated [Registration, Source, Operator, ] |
| 24-Jul-2024 12:54 | Paul Allonby | Updated [Source, Narrative, ] |
| 24-Jan-2025 07:50 | Rob Davis | Updated [Source, Narrative, ] |
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