Date:	Friday 8 December 1939
Time:
Type:	Blackburn Skua Mk II
Owner/operator:	800 Sqn FAA RN
Registration:	L2880
MSN:	7371/14
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	in the South Atlantic -   Atlantic Ocean
Phase:	Landing
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	HMS Ark Royal
Destination airport:	HMS Ark Royal
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
In November and December 1939, the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal was part of force K, one of the ten Allied naval groups searching for German raiders in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

On 8 December, while in the South Atlantic, the Skua II L2880 of 800 Squadron, landing on aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, missed the landing wires and crashed into the sea. The pilot, Sub Lt Peter Thomas Bethell, was killed, but the observer, Leading Airman J B Taylor, was rescued.

http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-3912-09DEC01.htm
http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-3911-08NOV02.htm
"Flying Sailors at war. Volume 1 September 1939-June 1940. Northern Europe, Norway, North Sea, North and South Atlantic", by Brian Cull with Bruce Lander and Mark Horan. ISBN 978-1-905414-14-7
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2973851/BETHELL,%20PETER%20THOMAS
http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/Aircraft/Skua.htm

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
08-Dec-2017 09:26	Laurent Rizzotti	Added
17-Dec-2019 19:15	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Operator]
05-Jan-2021 16:36	Peter Clarke	Updated [Cn, Other fatalities, Departure airport, Destination airport]