During the morning of Good Friday, 23rd April 1943 at least two Hurricanes pilots were undertaking formation flying practice over the northwest coast of England having set out from Usworth airfield near Sunderland earlier in the day, there was probably an instructor flying in a third aircraft as well as these two trainee pilots. After an hours practice formation flying the trainees were ordered to break away and undertake low flying and direction finding homing exercises individually but were warned to watch the weather conditions and stay local to the Maryport area over which they were flying. A short time later whilst flying in cloud at 12.00hrs both aircraft crashed into high ground in the Coniston Fells towards the south west side of the Lake District. Both pilots were killed instantly when the aircraft crashed in the Brim Fell area. The crash investigation recorded that prior to taking off both pilots were overheard discussing flying to Blackpool in the course of this training flight and it seemed probable that having completed part of the exercise had taken it upon themselves to fly to Blackpool. The crash report suggested that then having then flown into low cloud it was possible that they did not see the mountains in their path and flew into high ground.

Research done by myself and experienced mountaineer Mr Adrian Harris adds extra information. The crash report was quite critical of the pilots by stating that they had intended on flying to Blackpool as part of this flight. What it does not mention is that they had almost certainly become aware of the low cloud and had become lost well in advance of any crash. Mr Harris located a witness who was in Coniston at the time of the accidents and heard the two aircraft fly roughly over the village. Having located both crash sites and assuming that both aircraft were flying together and roughly in level flight we were able to use a compass to work out a likely heading both aircraft were on to avoid striking the ground prior to where they did. It was only possible for the aircraft to have been in a very narrow sector around the heading of 270' and it is probable that they had realised they were lost and steered onto a 270'/West heading to make for the coast to work out their position. The Coniston Fells were in the way and both aircraft crashed into high ground. The heading of 270' would also have taken them over an area just North of Coniston village and within earshot of the witness located.

Pilot - F/Sgt Leonard Thomas Cook RAAF (412399), aged 20, of Bowral, New South Wales, Australia. Buried Haverigg Churchyard, Cumbria.

Len Cook and his gravestone at Haverigg near Millom. He was born at Bowral, New South Wales on 11th October 1922 to Bertram Milton and Ethel Mary Cook (nee Page). He enlisted in Sydney on 19th July 1941 he was working as a clerk at the time. He was called up for regular service on 14th December 1941 and begun his training in Australia, having embarked at Sydney on 24th August 1942 bound for the UK he arrived at Bournemouth on 18th November 1942. After training at 5 (P)AFU from 19th January 1943 he was posted to 5 OTU on 2nd March 1943. At the time of his death he had flown 39 hours in the Hurricane type and a total of 150 hours in all aircraft. At the time of his death his parents were living in Parramatta, New South Wales.

Between June 2002 and April 2008 Will Lund and I visited the Coniston Fells numerous times and searched a wide area of Fells for aircraft wreckage. During our first search in June 2002 we came across scattered parts in Gill Cove; above Levers Water. In the years that followed further searches for aircraft remains were made without much success. Over the years since I created the basic webpage for this incident a number of people contacted me to say that they recall seeing what they believed to be aircraft wreckage near Low Water. Many of my visits to the area were to follow up these reports, however nothing was ever located on the surface, however with the modern main tourist route up the Old Man of Coniston passing Low Water it is possible that any remains have either been picked up and carried away or thrown into Low Water. Low Water would also have made a very convenient location for the RAF recovery team to have dumped aircraft remains. Having discovered experienced mountaineer Mr Adrian Harris in 2010 had an interest in locating Lakeland crash sites we set about trying to sort this crash location together once and for all. Mr Harris made many visits to the area mainly based on a recollection that his late father spoke of aircraft remains being seen next to Low Water and then for some distance up the fellside in the 1950s. He found a small section of aircraft skin was found in a stream in 2010 and while showing myself and Will Lund this Will then found a larger piece of aircraft structure. Ade returned to this location over a period of months and made a detailed search of the locality and numerous small fragments of an aircraft were found in amongst rocks and all of which must be the crash site of one of the two Hurricanes. The photograph shown above shows the crash site and the cross we placed is just above where we assume that aircraft struck. It is likely that the RAF removed the bulk of this aircraft down via Low Water to the Walna Scar road and out, where as the other aircraft was probably recovered into Gill Cove, then via Levers Water and the Coniston Mines track and out. Both explain why parts have been seen in these other areas over the years.

Myself and Ade Harris returned to the site in August 2012 mainly for me to record the finds he had made in the previous months, one of the parts found was looks to be an ammo chute and had yellow painted lettering on it, after gentle cleaning at the site and rotating it to the correct way up it shows the aircraft serial number "AG275". This is a remarkable find given the paint has lasted nearly seventy years and it confirms without a doubt that Hurricane AG275 crashed at this location above Low Water. It also means the other site previously found overlooking Gill Cove must be Hurricane AG264. This must be one the most important fragments of an aircraft I have seen at a crash site to identify a crash site. When this part emerged from under a rock it was very grotty and looked unimportant but after a gentle clean the yellow painted letters became more visible and clear and are shown in the photograph below. In February 2013 Channel Four's "Time Team" broadcast a television program about the copper mines at Levers Water. In one of the trenches close to the shore of Levers Water the team found the remains of a flying helmet, although they credited it as being from one of the crew of the Halifax over on Great Carrs it is more likely to have come down from the crash site of Hurricane AG275 or from AG264 as the body of the F/Sgt Atherton must have been bought down this side of Levers Water from Gill Cove.

A lead balance weight from the aircraft.

The section of aircraft shown above is exactly same as one found in Gill Cove in 2002. I show a photograph of that part on the webpage to Hurricane AG264 and a part number and "CCF" Canadian Car and Foundary Corporation (who built many numbers on contract) inspection stamp found on the part after gentle cleaning.

A large piece of armour plate from the area of the firewall / behind the instrument panel.

A tiny fragment of bakerlite from a cockpit switch.

An MoD licence to excavate / recover items from the site was granted on 6th October 1986 and again on 7th November 1989. I would welcome contact from anyone involved and would love to see any photographs of items found and recovered.

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