Liberator AM261 - Transport - 1941-08-10 to 1941-08-10
Squadron: (T) Ferry Command (RAF)
Start Date: 1941-08-10
Completion Date: 1941-08-10
Mission: Transport
Operation: unspecified
Target City:
Target Specific:
Base: RAF Heathfield
Take Off Time: 20:35
Squadron Code:
Radio Code:
Return Base:
Return Time:
Crash City: Scotland
Crash Specifics: Mullach Buidhe, at the head of Coire Lan, on the Isle of Arran
Crash Latitude: 0.00000000
Crash Longitude: 0.00000000
Crash Reason: weather
Flak Battery:
Enemy Claim:
War Diary Unavailable
6 Group Unavailable

RAF Ferry Command Return Service, Dorval Quebec. Liberator I aircraft AM261, returning civilian ferry aircrew to Dorval Quebec crashed in cloud soon after take-off into the hillside at Mullach Buidhe, at the head of Coire Lan, on the Isle of Arran, Scotland, killing all 22 crew and passengers aboard

Weather conditions at the time were overcast with low visibility and rain and the crash was recorded as a navigational error

Those killed:

  • Captain/Pilot ERB White, (BOAC), British civilian Pilot
  • Captain JJ Anderson, Canadian civilian Pilot
  • Captain FD Bradbrooke, Air Transport Auxiliary, American civilian Pilot
  • DJ Duggan, American civilian Pilot
  • WM King, American civilian Pilot
  • GT Harris, Air Transport Auxiliary, American civilian Pilot
  • HR Judy, American civilian Pilot
  • JE Price, Australian civilian Pilot
  • JJ Rouleston, American civilian Pilot
  • Captain HCW Smith, Canadian civilian Pilot
  • J Wixen, American civilian Pilot
  • RB Brammer, Canadian civilian Radio Officer
  • JB Drake, Canadian civilian Radio Officer
  • HS Green, BOAC, British civilian Radio Officer
  • WG Kennedy, Canadian civilian Radio Officer
  • G Laing, Canadian civilian Radio Officer
  • HC McIntosh, Canadian civilian Radio Officer
  • WK Marks, Canadian civilian Radio Officer
  • AA Oliver, Air Transport Auxiliary, British civilian Radio Officer
  • GH Powell, Air Transport Auxiliary, British civilian Radio Officer
  • HD Rees, Air Transport Auxiliary, British civilian Radio Officer
  • EG Reeves, American civilian Pilot/Flight Engineer
    • (marks www.rafcommands.com)

    Lord Beaverbrook was originally scheduled to fly on this aircraft to meet with Roosevelt and Churchill at the Atlantic Conference at Argentia, Newfoundland, but was switched to the second Liberator leaving that evening which arrived safely in Gander

    This crash was followed four days later by the crash of a second RAF Ferry Command Return Ferry Service aircraft (Liberator I AM 260) in Ayr, Scotland killing a further 22 civilian passengers and ferry aircrew

    General Aviation Safety Network

    General [Royal Air Force Serial and Image Database}...

    I Davies, A Casualty of War & Fate, Aeroplane Monthly, September, 2001

    Ocean Bridge, The History of RAF Ferry Command by Carl A Christie pages 310, 388

    The Liberator in Royal Air Force and Commonwealth Service by James D Oughton with John Hamlin and Andrew Thomas page 117

    General RAF Commands