Date & Time: Oct 21, 1941
Type of aircraft:
Avro 679 Manchester
Operator:
Registration:
L7487
Flight Phase:
Flight
Flight Type:
Bombing
Survivors:
No
Schedule:
Waddington - Waddington
Region:
Europe
Crew on board:
7
Crew fatalities:
7
Pax on board:
0
Pax fatalities:
0
Other fatalities:
0
Total fatalities:
7
Aircraft flight hours:
26
Circumstances:
The airplane departed RAF Waddington in the evening of August 20 on an operation to Bremen. While cruising at night off the British coast, the aircraft went out of control and crashed in unknown circumstances into the sea some 18 miles off Great Yarmouth. The body of P/O MacDonald was found few days later on a beach in France but no trace of the rest of the crew was ever found.
Crew (207th Squadron):
P/O John Charles Lancelot Ruck-Keene, pilot,
P/O George Sinclair MacDonald, copilot,
P/O Howard Stanley Ray, navigator,
F/Sgt John Stewart Cooper, bomb aimer,
Sgt David Donald Taylor, wireless operator and air gunner,
Sgt William Henry Cubbon, mid upper gunner,
Sgt Herbert Charles Gardner, rear gunner.