Forwarded from the Ulster Aviation Society about the loss of Charles Brumby of No 5 (C) OTU.
"I am afraid I can add little to the information you have obtained about Flight Sergeant Brumby. He was one of the crew of a Beaufort which was seen to crash into the sea just to the north of Portrush, Co Antrim in the course of a night navigation exercise, with the loss of all on board. The cause of the tragedy was never established.
One possibility is engine failure, to which the Taurus-engined Beauforts on strength with No 5 OTU were especially prone. The total loss of power on an engine resulted in asymmetric thrust which in many cases caused pilots to lose control, with inevitable consequences. The entry in the Operations Record Book is terse, "Beaufort I, DW995, (Pilot Officer Post and crew) failed to return after a night navigation exercise. The aircraft was seen to crash into the sea at approximately 1115 hours. All the crew are missing."
A former member of the Society, Reg Graham, was an engine fitter with No 5 OTU at RAF Long Kesh at the time. He often talked to me about his experiences and the lengths he and his colleagues went to to persuade higher authority to scrap these engines, which he claimed had not been sufficiently tested before being put into service. They only had a single Maneton bolt, in contrast to a pair in Hercules engines. A proposal to re-equip training unit Beauforts with American Pratt & Whitney engines was declined on the grounds that it "would cause hardship in the operational squadrons.""