On the 23rd April 1943 at least two Hurricanes pilots were undertaking formation flying practice over the northwest coast of England, there was probably and instructor flying in a third aircraft as well. After an hours practice formation flying they were ordered to break away and undertake in singles, low flying and D/F homing exercises but to watch the weather conditions and stay local to the Maryport area over which they were flying. A short time later whilst flying in cloud and at 12.00hrs both aircraft crashed into high ground to the north of Coniston at the south west end of the Lake District. Both pilots were killed instantly. Both aircraft crashed in the Brim Fell area, in the Coniston range. Working out which aircraft is which today is near impossible; if I have got the two the wrong way round please let me know!

Prior to taking off both pilots were overheard discussing flying to Blackpool in the course of this training flight and it seemed probable that having completed part of the exercise had taken it upon themselves to flying to Blackpool probably following railway lines. Having then flown into low cloud they did not see the mountains in their path and flew into high ground. AG275 was piloted by:

Pilot - Sgt Leonard T Cook RAAF, aged 20, of Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia. Buried Haverigg Churchyard, Cumbria.

Len Cook and his gravestone at Haverigg.

In April 2008 Will Lund, Luke Soloman and myself searched for this crash site, due to a heavy snow shower we called off the search because of the conditions but had located some parts of the aircraft. The following day Will and myself returned to the site, the snow had vertually melted and I got some photographs. The photograph above shows the area on the Sunday.

Part of an instrument.

An inspectors stamp which the lettering "CCF" clearly readable, the aircraft was made by the Canadian Car and Foundry Corporation.

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Saturdays visit!