On 26th October 1943 this aircraft took off from Silloth airfield, where it had been either stored or used by 22 M.U., it was to be ferried to
High Ercall airfield to the care of 222 M.U. It was being flown by a pilot belonging to No.3 Ferry Pilot Pool. My details surrounding this
incident are pretty vague. It appears to have flown into bad weather not long after setting out to fly down the west coast but stalled over
the hills to the east of Cleator Moor and crashed in the region of Flat Fell at 15.00hrs. Sadly the pilot was killed in the accident.
Pilot - P/O Maurice Gaston Emile Coutanceau RAFVR (158024), aged 23. Buried Upminster Churchyard, Essex. (1st Officer ATA).
Maurice Coutanceau was the son of Jean Leon Maurice and Madeleine Jeanne (nee Goiran) Coutanceau. He was born on 23rd February 1920 at Montpellier, France. His father was a
general medical practitioner and a regional medical officer for a French railway company. This later saw the family moved to Rose Hill, Mauritius though Maurice was sent to
Loughborough College in England as a young man. Almost certainly returned to Mauritius then returned to the UK to join the RAF in 1940 after the fall of France. On 28th June
1942 he was training with 19 OTU and taxying Whitley K9038 at Kinloss when the tail wheel collapsed. He was granted a commission in the RAFVR to the rank of P/O on probation
on 1st September 1943, seconded to the ATA he was serving as a ferry pilot at the time of his death in October 1943. He married Pauline Doris Weston at Upminster in 1942.
He was buried at Upminster because this was where she lived at the time. His younger brother Henri also served in the ATA.
He is also commemorated on a plaque within Upminster Church, on a plaque in the French Protestant Church in Soho Square, London and on a plaque at Egremont.
The location of where this incident occurred has not yet been found. If you can assist please contact me
HERE. Thank you.
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