Date:	Tuesday 17 February 1948
Time:	17:40
Type:	Avro Lancaster B Mk III GR
Owner/operator:	236 OCU RAF
Registration:	SW326
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 5
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Tain Ranges, Dornoch Firth, Scotland -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Kinloss, Morayshire
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Avro Lancaster B. Mk. III (GR) SW326, 236 OCU: Written off (destroyed) when flew into the ground at the Tain Bombing Ranges on the night of 16/17.2.1948. Aircraft flew into the ground when the autopilot was accidentally engaged and would not disengage during the changeover between the pilot and the co-pilot. All five crew survived

Per eyewitness report: "I was at Kinloss in 1948 on 236 OCU. We were due to go on leave on the 18th of February having finished the course. They came up to us and said that as we had missed a night bombing course, they were sending us to do it that night. We took off at 17:40 for the Tain bombing range. Instead of changing Navigators half way I volunteered to do both lots. Everything was going well and they changed pilots and seemed to be turning onto the target. So, I said target sighted and the answer I got was wrap up, the next thing I heard was “ditching”: Evidently, he followed that with “crash landing”, but I did not hear that. I was out of the nose as fast as I could go, underneath the 2nd pilot’s foot rest and got as far as the navigator's seat.

The rest of the crew were at their crash positions, then we hit, sparks flashed across my eyes and that’s all I remember. When I came to, I was facing the front of the aircraft. I saw the pilot reach up and release the upper hatch over his head. Flames were coming around the cockpit and I thought it was about time I joined him.

Most people got out of the upper hatch, over the main spar. Two people went for the door at the back and there was no rear of the aircraft and found themselves in six inches of water, in actual fact the aircraft had finished up in the only bit of dry ground in a marsh.

It was quite light as the aircraft was burning very well. We had a roll call and there was one person missing. We searched for him and found the rear turret; we got him out and he was unconscious. We found some parachutes and laid him on those, and when he came to a bit and was cold took our coats off and put over him. During this time the fire and bombs were going quite well. We kept warm by the fire and finally the fire brigade turned up, the nearest they could get to us was half a mile and so we walked out and were taken to the pub in Tain. Everybody not seriously injured. The person in the rear turret recovered.

They came and got us from Tain the next morning in a Shackleton. We never heard the result of the crash, the two pilots could not hold it, and they said they put on full power but I never heard it."

1. Halley, James (1999). Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.72. ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Final Landings: A Summary of RAF Aircraft and Combat Losses 1946 to 1949 by Colin Cummings p.375
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1985 p 53)
4. The Lancaster File (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1985 p 138)
5. 236 OCU ORB for the period 1-8-47 to 31-12-50: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 29/1640: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4101350
6. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AVIA 5/29/W2411: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C6578257
7. https://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?98229-Some-aircraft-wrecks-around-Moray-Scotland/page3&p=1702858#post1702858
8. https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-avro-683-lancaster-iii-tain
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Kinloss#Cold_War
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._236_Operational_Conversion_Unit_RAF#No._236_OCU

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
10-Mar-2013 16:37	Dr. John Smith	Added
04-Dec-2018 09:09	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Operator]
29-Nov-2019 19:06	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Source, Narrative]
29-Nov-2019 22:19	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Nature, Operator]