released by other units. The same month, No. 12 EFTS transferred to its permanent home at RAAF Station Lowood. The standard intake of pilots at No. 8 SFTS each month was 50, and the initial course of students graduated in March 1942. By July that year, the total number of aircraft operated by the school had increased to 87. Flying accidents were commonplace at training establishments and No. 8 SFTS was no exception; taxiing collisions, crash landings in the surrounding cane fields, and runway overshoots were regular occurrences. At least two aircraft were damaged each month in the early part of 1942. The school's first fatality, however, was from drowning, when staff were called out to assist victims of local flooding in February, and an aircraftman died during an attempted rescue. On 1 June 1942, an Anson crashed into the sea off Bargara, near Bundaberg; the pilot and two crew were reported as missing, believed killed. Three more aircrew were lost when an Anson apparently went down in the sea on 5 October. On 25 February 1943, an Anson crashed during a night-flying exercise, killing both pilots. The school suffered a ground fatality on 25 April 1944, when a mechanic walked into the spinning propeller of an Anson he was servicing. Two more pilots were killed when an Anson dived into the ground on 8 December, following an apparent structural failure. The outbreak of the Pacific War in December 1941 had led to aircraft at many SFTSs being classified as Second Line (Reserve) aircraft in the defence of Australia. Following directions issued in May 1942, No. 71 Reserve Squadron was raised at Bundaberg, using resources allocated from No. 8 SFTS. One of the Ansons assigned to the squadron crashed on 5 June 1942 after running out of fuel in bad weather at night, killing the pilot and two crew members. In response to Japanese submarine activity off Australia's east coast, the Federal government formally established two RAAF maritime patrol units in the first half of 1943 with personnel and aircraft from No. 8 SFTS. No. 71 Squadron was formed as a separate entity to the flying school on 26 January at Lowood, maintaining detachments at RAAF Stations Bundaberg and Amberley in Queensland, as well as at Richmond and, later, Coffs Harbour in New South Wales. No. 66 Squadron was formed at Bundaberg on 20 May. The squadrons undertook anti-submarine, convoy