Date:	Friday 18 February 1944
Time:	20:45
Type:	Consolidated B-24D Liberator
Owner/operator:	10 Sqn RCAF
Registration:	586
MSN:	1533
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 6
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	13 miles south of RCAF Goose Bay, Newfoundland -   Canada
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Reykjavick, Iceland
Destination airport:	RCAF Gander, Newfoundland

Narrative:
On the February 18, 1944, RCAF Liberator GR.V 586 Code A (10 (BR) Sqn) was returning to its home base at RCAF Station Gander, Newfoundland from Iceland. The aircraft ran into a ferocious winter storm over the Straits of Belle Isle and they turned back towards RCAF Goose Bay. The aircraft began to ice up, chocking off their carburetors and coating the engine cowlings and bottom of the wings with thick ice. To further complicate things, ice on the antennas rendered the radios useless. The navigator kept the crew on course as the pilots fought to retain control and direction after losing the two starboard engines. No.1 engine soon quit and No.2 seemed to be burning. With a crash landing inevitable, the pilots decided to try and put down in a lightly wooded area vice a ditching on the thin ice of a lake. The right wing hit a tree and swung the Liberator around as it broke into five pieces as it hit other trees. The five crew survived the crash, but a passenger was killed.

Three days after the crash, a local trapper came upon the crash site, 13 miles (24 Km) south of Goose Bay. He assisted the crew who were having great difficulties surviving in the very cold weather that one night had dropped to minus 55°F (-48°C). The trapper then headed out to the RCAF base with a letter detailing the state of the crew and the location of the crash site. He arrived at the base at the same time as a USAF C-47 sighted their smoke signals and an SOS in the snow. The Dakota dropped survival supplies and throughout the next couple of days, the crew were brought out of the woods to safety at Goose Bay. The Source websites provide great details of the crash, their survival and eventual rescue from the crew perspective and the rescuer perspective.

Crew:
Pilot: J/3525 S/L Allister Andrew Thomas Imrie, DFC
Co-pilot: J/23067 F/O J.D.L. Campbell
Navigator: J/9316 F/L Garnet Robson Harland, DFC
Wireless Op/Air Gunner: J/36686 P/O M.J. Gilmour
Wireless Op/Air Gunner: WO1 A.C. Johns

Passenger who lost his life was C/24863 Flying Officer David Francis Griffin RCAF. A 39 year old Press Liaison Officer on temporary duty to Eastern Air Command.

Air Force Association of Canada website and Hugh Halliday (Aug 10, 2010)
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nbpennfi/penn8b2Harlan_GR.htm
Royal Air Force Commands website
http://www.rafcommands.com/archive/08718.php
Saskatoon Star-Phoenix 3 April 1955, p10
https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/2954007
http://www.rafcommands.com/database/serials/details.php?uniq=RCAF%20586
http://www.rwrwalker.ca/RCAF_551_600_detailed.htm
RCAF historical microfilms containg 10 Sqn war diaries and accident report
https://www.rcafassociation.ca/heritage/search-awards/?search=J3525&searchfield=servicenumber&type=all

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
16-Apr-2015 15:42	Yukonjack	Added
20-Apr-2015 06:31	AlLah	Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Destination airport]
31-Dec-2017 15:55	TB	Updated [Operator, Location, Source, Narrative]
31-Dec-2017 15:56	TB	Updated [Narrative]
12-Mar-2022 16:49	tachel	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Source, Narrative]
12-Mar-2022 16:53	tachel	Updated [Narrative]
12-Mar-2022 18:42	tachel	Updated [Location, Narrative]