FATAL AIR EXERCISE
EXPLANATION BY MINISTER
(Rec. 12.50 p.m.) LONDON, April 29. Replying to a question in the House of Commons, about the accident during Army manoeuvres on Salisbury Plain on April 13, the Secretary of Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair, said that it occurred during an exercise the Fighter Command had arranged for officers and other ranks of the home forces to demonstrate the effects of fighter planes firing at ground targets. Attacks were made against dummy troops, a lorry convoy, and tanks disposed as targets. After five Hurricanes in turn had successfully attacked, the sixth' fired on spectators in an enclosure in mistake for its allotted target, with the deplorable result that 25 Army officers and other ranks were killed and 68 Army officers and other ranks and three R.A.F. officers and airmen were injured.
Sir Archibald Sinclair said that the Air Council, in consultation with the Army Council, was now considering the findings of the Court of Inquiry.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 100, 30 April 1942, Page 5
Word Count
160FATAL AIR EXERCISE Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 100, 30 April 1942, Page 5
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