Amarda Road AFB

At 0915LT, six Liberators of AFTU took off from Amarda Rd Airfield to carry out a navigational exercise in formation. At approximately 0945LT, the formation, which had been encountering medium to bad weather, approached a heavy bank of cloud. The leader, S/Ldr Heynert, commenced to lose height in an attempt to fly underneath this, but reached the cloud before he was quite low enough and the formation entered the cloud. Number 6 by this time was some little way behind the formation. On entering the cloud visibility was reduced to nil and numbers 2 and 5 in the formation altered course starboard and number 4 altered course port. On coming out of the cloud aircraft number 1 (EW225) and aircraft number 3 (EW247) captained by PO Herbert, were seen to be in close proximity, and number 3 was then seen to pull up and collide with number 1. The tail unit of number 1 was torn off and the aircraft crashed out of control, and one wing (which one not established) of number 3 was torn off, causing the aircraft to crash.
Crew:
F/O Alfred Herbert, pilot,
F/O Peter Hubert Ash Smith, navigator and bomb aimer,
F/Sgt Cyril William Geeson, flight engineer,
W/O William Joseph Smart, wireless operator and air gunner,
AC1 George William Paffey,
AC2 P. V. Mathai.
Source: http://www.rquirk.com/amarda/26July45storyV6eb.pdf

At 0915LT, six Liberators of AFTU took off from Amarda Rd Airfield to carry out a navigational exercise in formation. At approximately 0945LT, the formation, which had been encountering medium to bad weather, approached a heavy bank of cloud. The leader, S/Ldr Heynert, commenced to lose height in an attempt to fly underneath this, but reached the cloud before he was quite low enough and the formation entered the cloud. Number 6 by this time was some little way behind the formation. On entering the cloud visibility was reduced to nil and numbers 2 and 5 in the formation altered course starboard and number 4 altered course port. On coming out of the cloud aircraft number 1 (EW225) and aircraft number 3 (EW247) captained by PO Herbert, were seen to be in close proximity, and number 3 was then seen to pull up and collide with number 1. The tail unit of number 1 was torn off and the aircraft crashed out of control, and one wing (which one not established) of number 3 was torn off, causing the aircraft to crash.
Crew:
S/Ldr Félicité Pierre André Heynert, pilot,
P/O Raymond Maurice Bullen, pilot,
F/O Robert Stanley Manson, wireless operator and air gunner,
F/Lt Alexander Norman Borrow, navigator and bomb aimer,
P/O Lewis Arnold Bridgman, wireless operator and air gunner,
F/O Peter Ettlinger, flight engineer,
F/Lt Sydney Wilfred Wells, navigator and bomb aimer,
F/Sgt Walter Reginald George Wood, air bomber.
Source: http://www.rquirk.com/amarda/26July45storyV6eb.pdf