MEMORIAL AT THE SITE OF WARTIME AIR CRASH THAT CLAIMED 7 LIVES

A MEMORIAL to the crew of an RAF aircraft which crashed during the Second World War will be dedicated this weekend - nine years after a campaign was started to publicly recognise the tragedy.

- By KEVIN PALMER

The event will take place on Sunday, 81 years to the day that the seven crew perished when their Short Stirling bomber LJ 630 crashed into a field at Stanton-by-Dale, near Ilkeston, during a heavy thunderstorm.

The 8ft metal sculpture designed by artist Malcolm Sier and produced by FC Laser, based in the village, stands on cages of Derbyshire limestone in a private grazing field off Dale Road so it can be seen by passersby.

It was on the night of August 31, 1944 that the pilot and a raw crew based at RAF Wigsley, in Nottinghamshire, were on the last leg of a cross-country training flight when they encountered a severe thunderstorm and one of the plane’s four engines caught fire.

Rapidly losing altitude the plane managed to clear a ridge on one side of Dale Road but crashed at the bottom of a field next to Grove Farm at 11pm.