5 Operational Training Unit, Boundary Bay, British Columbia. Sergeant Scratch was killed when his Mitchell aircraft HD 343 crashed four miles north of the aerodrome at Boundary Bay after five hours and fifteen minutes of dangerous low- flying. Just prior to his unauthorized flight in the Mitchell, Sergeant Scratch had taken a Liberator aircraft and taxied it off the tarmac and into a ditch, all four propellers struck the hard surfaced road, three of the propellers fractured the reduction housing and broke free of the aircraft. The nosewheel oleo leg was also sheared off and the aircraft collapsed on its belly on the roadway. Sergeant Scratch was not authorized to taxi the Liberator.