Date

Location

Force

Aircraft

From-To

Crew

14-02-1941 

Tróia - Setúbal

RAF     95 Sqn

Short Sunderland I         P9623

Pembroke Dock (UK) → Gibraltar → Freetown (Sierra Leone)

S/Ldr      Pat Lombard             NZ

F/Lt.      Evison                       NZ

F/O        Bowie                        NZ

Sgt         Jack Banfield            NZ

              Ginger Ashcroft

              Jim Thomas

              Joe Tanner

              Charlie Fry

              Eddie Edwards

The fightin a strong a hurricane exhausted the aircraft's fuel and the pilot had to ditch.

The crew was repatriated in 23 March 1941. It was the first time British airmen left the country, and it was made under the supervision of a Portuguese air officer. Major António Dias Leite, asked by the British Embassy and under the supervision of "higher authorities", organized the "escape" by sea trough Aveiro. 

The plane was offered to Portugal in May 1942 and it became AN 136 in the “Aviação Naval”, the air branch of the Portuguese Navy.

In March 1944, after repairs, it went on a mission to the Portuguese Guinea colony, but on the way one propeller was lost, hiting another engine. The accident happened near the Canaries islands but the pilot - Capitão-de-Mar-e-Guerra Paulo Viana – was able to bring the aircraft back to Lisbon with only two engines.

It never flew again and was scrapped in the next year.

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