Chitty was an American contract employee navigator and pilot of Ferry Command. He and other civilian airline staff from the U.S. airlines staffed the overseas transport flights of aircraft being delivered to Britain.
In this case the Liberator had already made the flight from Dorval to Trinidad, BWI. Taking off from there the pilot had mistakenly selected the emergency fuel tanks, resulting in all four engines cutting out after the plane had only climbed a few hundred feet. The aircraft crashed with the loss of the entire crew.
Killed: Canadian Civilian Flight Engineer C F McDougall Canadian Civilian Radio Officer C V Atkinson US Civilian Pilot Captain T L Livermore US Civilian Pilot W C Chitty US Civilian Navigator G F Johnston.