Date:	Friday 20 March 1942
Time:
Type:	Bristol Beaufort Mk I
Owner/operator:	42 Sqn RAF
Registration:	L4514
MSN:	AW-R
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 4
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Nr. Tingwall, Shetland Islands -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Leuchars, Fife, Scotland
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Engine iced up returning from strike and crashed at Dales Voe, Shetland. He was returning from an abandoned raid on a German military convoy off Norway owing to bad weather over target area.

Pilot: Plt Off Tom Thornley Braithwaite Stoker RCAF - Lerwick New Cemetery Shetland Islands Terrace 7B. Grave 3. Tom, aged 19, one of four sons of the late Captain Tom Stoker MC, lived in Montreal and had been in RCAF since October 1940. He trained in Canada and was stationed in the UK from October 1941 at 5 OTU RAF Chivenor, joining 42 Sqn on February 16th 1942.

The other crewmen killed were Sgt Norman Blanchflower (observer) aged 20 from Bournemouth, Hampshire; Sgt Arthur James Woolsey (wireless-operator) aged 22 from Sheffield, Yorkshire, and a Sgt WH Bond, air-gunner, who was seriously injured.

The six aircraft which took part in the mission were split-up by low cloud, heavy icing and severe winds. A second crashed on Shetland and a third in County Durham. Tom's aircraft crashed 50-yards from a farmhouse who occupant, a Mr Garrick, was praised for dragging the crew clear. The crash happened at 21.15 with the aircraft's unused torpedo found 30-yards from the shattered aircraft. Investigators believed both engines failed due to severe carburretor icing.

Air Britain RAF Aircraft L1000 - N9999
CWGC
Aircrew Remembered.com
RCAF Personnel File for P/O Stoker (with Accident Report) plus Operational Record Books for 42 Sqn (AIR 27/436/5 AND 6 (UK National Archives).

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
19-Mar-2008 23:19	JINX	Added
08-Feb-2015 20:45	Anon.	Updated [Narrative]
17-Nov-2017 21:45	Red Dragon	Updated [Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative]
11-Nov-2018 13:37	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Destination airport, Operator]
21-Mar-2022 13:49	Paul Allonby	Updated [Cn, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Source, Narrative]