returning to the Eglin main base (where emergency preparations had been made on the runways. The fighter came down just west of the airfield. 22 September The first of four Saab J 21R jet conversions from Saab J 21A-1 21119, first flown on 10 March 1947 after modification, was destroyed in a mid-air explosion. 15 October The second prototype Westland Wyvern TF Mk. 1 (N.11/44, TS375), powered by Rolls-Royce Eagle, crashed during an attempted forced landing at RAE Farnborough after its propeller stopped; Westland test pilot squadron leader Peter J. Garner, late of the RAF, was killed. The aircraft was to rendezvous for air-to-air photography for Flight photographer John Yoxall, but a bearing failed; both contra-props stopped, and the pilot was unable to round-off properly from a steep dive. The plane crashed on the intended field and broke into pieces; the pilot was unconscious, and the airframe burned almost completely. 18 October An RCAF North American B-25 Mitchell with nine aboard disappeared during a flight from Calgary to Penticton, British Columbia. The plane was still not found by December 1947. 3 November English Electric test pilot Johnny W. C. Squier took off from Samlesbury Aerodrome in English Electric-built de Havilland Vampire F.3 VP732, intended for the RCAF as 17043. After his engine failed, Squier force-landed on a farm (narrowly missing trees). The fighter was wrecked, but Squier survived. 4 November A USAF pilot and co-pilot belly-landed burning Boeing B-29-70-BW Superfortress 44-69989 of the 98th Bomb Group, in a wheat-stubble field south of Wilbur, Washington after they ordered the five crew to bail out. The bomber was on a flight from Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, to Spokane Air Force Base when an engine caught fire. Residents of Wilbur saw it circling with an engine afire as the pilot sought a place to put it down. The first communications to Spokane Field that it was in trouble came at about 15:00. Those who jumped were injured, but the pilot and co-pilot were unhurt. 13 November Boeing B-29A-60-BN Superfortress 44-62063 of the 98th Bomb Group, Spokane Air Force Base, Washington, crashed and burned one mile west of Bald Knob on Mount Spokane along Dead Man Creek Road, killing five crew and seriously injuring two. The bomber, one of three flying in formation on a local training mission, cut a swath through trees and brush as it neared the ground. The other