Date:	Wednesday 7 November 1945
Time:	night
Type:	Avro Lancaster Mk III
Owner/operator:	279 Sqn RAF
Registration:	PB431
MSN:	RL-F
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 8 / Occupants: 8
Aircraft damage:	Aircraft missing
Location:	English Channel, off South Coast of England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Thornaby, North Yorkshire
Destination airport:

Narrative:
No 279 Sqn flew its first Lancaster operational sorties on 8 Nov 45 with F/O Davis the first to get airborne at 02:05 hours in "RL-O" from Thornaby to search for a 279 Sqn Lancaster that had gone missing the previous night on a navigational exercise.

The missing aircraft was PB431 "RL-F". F/O Davis was followed by F/O Witchell in "RL-E" at 02:49 hours. A second pair, "RL-M" and "Rl-B", captained by F/Lt Barrington and F/Lt Moon were off at dawn followed by F/O Scholey and F/O Thompson in "RL-H" and "RL-L". Liberators of No 111 OTU also assisted in the search. Nothing was sighted by any of these crews.

Throughout the day another eight Lancaster sorties were flown without success. The next two days saw another fourteen Lancaster sorties flown from Thornaby but nothing was found. All 8 crew presumed MIA/KIA:

Flight Sergeant David Anderson, Service Number 1825170, aged 20
Flight Sergeant Charles Eric Ferdinand Blake, Service Number 1324410
Flight Sergeant Evelyn Edward William King, Service Number 1623602, aged 21
Sergeant Donald Charles Maclean, Service Number 1571094, aged 21
Flight Sergeant Stanley Horace Mortimer, Service Number 1272181, aged 25
Flying Officer Kenneth Frederick Parmenter, DFM, Service Number 198205, aged 21
Warrant Officer Kenneth Watson Robinson, Service Number 1622318, aged 22
Flight Sergeant Roy William Vickers, Service Number 568767, aged 26

As no trace of the Lancaster or its crerw of eight was ever found, they are all remember on the Runnymede Memorial.

1. Halley, James (1999). Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. pp.16. ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Dinghy Drop: 279 Squadron RAF 1941-1946 (page 204) By Tom Docherty
3. http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?8438-LANCASTER-quot-MISSING-quot-7th-November-1945
4. http://lancaster-archive.com/lanc_unknowncrashsites.pdf
5. https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/96127522@N04/11108882395/
6. https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-avro-683-lancaster-iii-channel-8-killed
7. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1082772/anderson,-david/
8. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1529933/blake,-charles-eric-ferdinand/
9. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1802745/king,-evelyn-edward-william/
10. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1079582/maclean,-donald-charles/
11. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1077267/mortimer,-stanley-horace/
12. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1803895/parmenter,-kenneth-frederick/
13. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2940433/robinson,-kenneth-watson/
14. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1809324/vickers,-roy-william/

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
27-Aug-2013 06:11	JINX	Added
26-Dec-2014 23:12	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Departure airport, Source, Damage, Narrative]
31-Oct-2018 14:53	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Operator]
21-Oct-2019 18:07	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Cn, Source, Narrative]