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| Date: | Monday 19 February 1945 |
| Time: | 15:25 |
| Type: |  Douglas Dakota III (DC-3) |
| Owner/operator: | Royal Air Force - RAF |
| Registration: | TS436 |
| MSN: | 19349 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1943 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 20 / Occupants: 21 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed, written off |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | 4 km NE of Zeals RAF Station -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Initial climb |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | Zeals RAF Station |
The flying weather was poor, with low cloud and limited horizontal visibility as the Dakota was returning from RAF Zeals to Lincolnshire following a training mission at Zeals.
Shortly after taking off the Dakota struck 60-feet tall beech trees atop a hillock and lost 10 feet of its port wing. This caused the plane to roll out of control, strike further trees and crash to the ground, breaking up and being consumed by fire.
The pilot who was the sole survivor, had failed to climb to a safe height when flying in poor visibility, although the knoll was a well known obstruction in close proximity to the airfield.
Sources:
WW2 Talk Forum
Images:
photo (c) Gordon Robins; Zeals RAF Station; 13 July 2016
Revision history:
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