Date:	Thursday 6 October 1938
Time:	01:32
Type:	Handley Page HP54 Harrow Mk II
Owner/operator:	215 Sqn RAF
Registration:	K6971
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 5
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	English Channel, off Dungeness, Kent -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Honington, Suffolk
Destination airport:	RAF Honington, Suffolk
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Handley Page HP.54 Harrow Mk.II K6971 of 215 Squadron, RAF Honington: Missing 6/10/38 in a storm during night exercises over English Channel. Believed struck by lightning off Dungeness, Kent. Search And Rescue sorties were performed by British and French authorities for several days following the incident, but no trace of any wreckage was ever found. All five crew killed.

Crew:
Pilot: Pilot Officer Roland Noah Haynes RAF killed.
Observer: Flying Officer Douglas Aubrey Hamilton RAF killed.
Co-pilot: Pilot Officer Thomas Ian Stewart Munro RAF killed.
Air gunner: L/AC Charles Selby Lodge RAF killed.
W/Operator & Air Gunner: AC1 Trevor Prowse RAF killed.

Hamilton's body was washed ashore on Egmond-an-Zee, Netherlands on 3/11/38 and is now buried at Egmond-Binnen. He was identified thanks to the papers he had in his flying suit, he was the first RAF airman to be buried in the Netherlands. Prowse's body was reported to have washed ashore at Arendal, near Kristiansand, Norway, on 19/12/38. The other three crew were posted missing ("the Air Ministry announces with regret that as investigations have failed to find the aircraft and the occupants it must now be accepted that the R.A.F. personnel lost their lives on that date"

By an extraordinary coincidence, three Handley Page Harrows were all lost within the space of 24 hours (all on 6/10/38); two of them (K6965 and K6971) were from the same unit (215 Squadron, RAF) and both of these were lost due to lighting strikes on the airframe whilst in flight.

1. The K File The RAF of the 1930s (James J. Halley, Air Britain, 1976 p 56)
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missing_aircraft
3. http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?1829-Fate-crew-Harrow-K6971-6th-Oct-1938
4. Flight Magazine October 13, 1938 p 320 at https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1938/1938%20-%202828.html
5. http://www.zzairwar.nl/dossiers/700.html
6. [LINK NOT WORKING ANYMORE:http://www.baaa-acro.com/1938/archives/crash-of-a-handley-page-h-p-54-harrow-in-united-kingdom-5-killed-2/]
7. https://tijdschriften.archiefalkmaar.nl/issue/GEE/2010-12-01/edition/null/page/24

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
20-Oct-2009 17:16	JINX	Added
13-Dec-2011 21:58	angels one five	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
06-Feb-2017 19:10	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
05-Nov-2017 14:17	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Narrative]
16-Mar-2018 21:03	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
16-Mar-2018 21:03	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
16-Mar-2018 21:19	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Narrative]
04-Oct-2018 13:52	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Operator]