Flight Sergeant Fraciszek Ciaston,792374 of the  Polish Air Force had flown 7 Operational Sorties with 304 squadron. Flight Sergeant Ciaston as pilot, with his all Polish crew of Wellington HZ 251 took off from Skipton on Swale, Yorkshire, on a routine training flight to return to their home base at 6 OTU Silloth, Cumberland. Shortly afterwards, the aircraft suffered a major wing failure and fell from the low altitude of 1,500 feet it was then flying at, crashing on the banks of the Leeds – Liverpool canal at Bradley, near Skipton. None of the seven man crew survived the horrific accident.

  On 22^nd April 2007,after researching the crew and tracing relations with a view to a permanent memorial at the crash site, Peter Whitaker of Cross Hills and Jim Hartley of Bradley, both near Skipton unveiled the Memorial.