During the early hours of 10th August 1943 the crew of this 1659 Heavy Conversion Unit aircraft were carrying out a basic night flying circuits and landings exercise. During one of the landings just ten minutes into the exercise at 00.35hrs the starboard main tyre burst. A swing developed, the aircraft left the runway and an undercarriage collapse resulting in it skidding to a halt on the dropped wing.
Pilot - Sgt Irvine Charles Randolph Bowden RAF (621553).
Pilot - Sgt Francis Albert Long RAFVR (1335994).
Irvine Bowden completed his training and was posted to 432 Squadron. On 27th September 1943 he was flying as second pilot in Welligton HE817 on Ops to Hannover and failed to return. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. He was twenty seven years old.
Francis Long was later posted to 431 Squadron. On the night of 3rd / 4th December 1943 he was the pilot of Halifax EB137 undertaking an operational flight to Leipzig. The aircraft failed to return and he and all his crew were killed. They are buried in Bergen General Cemetery, Holland. He was still just twenty years old.
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