The aircraft was on a night navigation training exercise on a route Wigtown - Rathlin Island - Blackpool - Wigtown when the navigator lost his bearings near Rathlin. The pilot decided to loose height in an attempt to identify landmarks and flew into the north west slopes of Mullaghclogha in the Sperrins about 30 mins after midnight
FO IL MacFadyen J/36483 RCAF - Pilot Burried Tamlaght Finlagan CofI Churchyard, Warrant Officer J Pennack 1292351 RAF WOp Burried Southend on Sea, Sutton Road,Sergeant RA Button 3041475 RAF WOp Burried Bolstersone, St Mary's Churchyard Shefield, Flt Sergeant RH Gillian 37399 RAAF Burried Limavady St Mary's RC ChurchyardThe fifth member of the crew Bomb Aimer Flt Sergeant TMD Shaxson RAF, was thrown clear by the force of the impact but suffered severe leg and other injuries, Michael Shaxson was not discovered until the late afternoon when two local men called Duffy and Griffin, who were coming off the mountain after digging drains, hears Shaxson's distress whistle and found him sitting in the aircrafts inflated rubber dinghy, surrounded by sheep! Michael Shaxson made a full recovery and with the co-operation of the society, returned to the crash site in 1982 to meet and thank his rescuers, for the first time since the incident, and was featured in a BBC TV documentary, only tiny fragments of the wreckage remain at the crash site
source: Malcolm Deeley, Ulster Aviation Society