Seven die in crash at pageant

Press, 23 September 1980, Page 8

Seven die in crash at pageant

NZPA London British Department of Trade investigators were yesterday carrying out an examination of the wreckage of a Second World War bomber which crashed during a pageant marking the Battle of Britain, killing the seven people on board. Thousands of people saw the American-made A 26 Douglas Invader, owned by a private air force, crash nose first into the ground. It narrowly missed a street of houses near the wartime airfield at Biggin Hill, south-east of London. Telegraph wires two metres above the houses were clipped by the plane’s wings. The aircraft belonged to the Cavalier Air Force, based in Cambridgeshire. It was taking part in the last Battle of Britain air show at the historic airfield. The force is part of the Euroworld Organisation which specialises in the maintenance and operation of historic aircraft. The pilot of the plane was Donald Bullock, aged 40, unmarried, head of the Euroworld Organisation and a former R.A.F. officer. The A 26 was one of 50 old British, American, and German planes taking part in the show as a thanksgiving for the Royal Air Force victory over the German Luftwaffe in the summer of 1940 — Adolf Hitler’s first defeat Among the spectators were ace fighter pilots of the Battle of Britain and 450 specially invited men and women who served during the war at Biggin Hill.