flight from Tachikawa airfield, a successful 20-minute test of its low-speed handling characteristics, piloted by Lt. Moriya of the Koku Shinsa-bu (Air Examination Department) with 2nd Lt. Ikebayashi in the second seat. Moriya undershot the runway and touched down in soft soil, ground-looping the airframe and tearing off its port undercarriage leg and engine mount and bending its six-blade propeller. Repairs were completed in four weeks; the night before the scheduled second test flight, however, a B-29 bombing raid on Tachikawa destroyed the hangar housing the airframe. 8 April United States Navy Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer, BuNo 59442, Zebra 442 of VPB-108, based at Tinian, Northern Marianas Islands, was lost on an aircrew-search mission over the Pacific Ocean when the crew became disoriented and ditched at 6 pm. Spotted by two PB4Ys on 11 April, the crew was rescued from rafts by the submarine on 12 April. 11 April The second of two Northrop XP-61E Black Widows, 42-39557, modified from the P-61B with a cut-down fuselage and bubble canopy, was written off when an over-eager pilot tried the P-38 Lightning trick of retracting the landing gear on take-off while still on the runway. The heavier Widow settled onto the runway, its hollow steel propellers shattered, and the airframe struck a tool shack on the side of the runway; the pilot survived. The first XP-61E, 42-39549, was modified into the sole XF-15 photo-reconnaissance prototype (36 of which were built as the Northrop F-15A Reporter). 13 April On 5 April, a B-24H-15-DT Liberator 41-28779 of the 564th Bomb Squadron, 389th Bomb Group (Heavy) captured by the Luftwaffe on 20 June 1944 (MACR 6533) and operated as KO+XA by KG 200 left Wackersleben to avoid the Soviet advance with 29 Kampfgeschwader 200 personnel aboard for a flight to Bavaria via Braunschweig. About 25 minutes into the flight, a German flak battery fired on the Liberator; the fuselage, wings and number-four (starboard outer) engine were damaged, and the rudder cables were cut. Pilot Oberfeldwebel Rauchfuss maintained control. Two passengers injured by the gunfire required immediate medical attention, one of whom later died. Rauchfuss landed in a meadow near Quedlinburg, but a powerline forced him to apply power to clear it and the bomber broke its nosewheel strut when it overran into a ploughed field. The strut was removed and sent to the Junkers component factory in Eilsleben for repair; the engine-oil leak and the rudder