SharePoint Error Delete Site WebDeleted.aspx File Not Found

We had several  users reporting an error when deleting a SharePoint team site. The error appears as a “File Not Found.” on the WebDeleted.aspx layout page along with a stack trace. It appears that the problem stems from our custom master page. For our implementation we use a custom HttpModule that redirects incoming requests for a master page to virtualized custom master pages that we maintain.

The WebDeleted.aspx page references the simple.master page which we redirect to our customized application master page. Apparently this results in the page trying to load in elements that are out of context for it. The solution was to stop redirecting simple.master and instead route it back to the SharePoint out of the box simple.master.