Malcolm D Hughes
MilitaryIWM, Roger Freeman Collection
On mission to France on 18-Aug-43 while flying F-5A 42-13099 on a photo recce mission to France, the aircraft sustained a mechancial failure of a trim tab control rod and F/O Hughes baled out of the aircraft near Kent, UK and was not injured, the aircraft crashed at Monkton Court Farm, near Manston, Kent and was destroyed.
On August 18, 1943, Flight Officer Malcolm “Doc” Hughes, a pilot of an F-5A-10 (P-38 Lightning) recon aircraft of the 22nd PRS, 7th PRG , flew a short hop across the Channel to Lile, France. Climbing to 35,000 feet in 10/10ths cloud cover, hailstones suddenly pounded his windscreen. Without warning – and without moving the yoke – his P-38 shuddered and climbed to 40,000 feet and went out of control. Checking his six, Hughes saw his tail assembly was gone. Hughes attempted a bailout but was pinned in by centrifugal forces. The aircraft stabilised for a moment. The airspeed indicator read 450 knots; altitude – 25,000 feet. Hughes rolled down the window, using the rearview mirror for leverage, and pulled himself from the cockpit and exited the aircraft. Upon exiting the aircraft the airstream ripped off his mask and Hughes felt “a stinging sensation about my face and thought it was the wind.” Hughes broke through the cloud layer at around 5,000 feet and landed on the coast of England. Subsequent examination of the wreckage indicated a broken trim tab control rod that allowed elevator flutter, which precipitated the break-up of the aircraft.
Connections
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Units served with
- Unit Hierarchy: Squadron
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Reconnaissance
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Reconnaissance
Aircraft
Places
- Site type: Airfield
- Site type: Airfield
Revisions
Lee Cunningham 24-May-2015. Added Summary Biography edited and Place and Mission connections added based on "Losses of the 8ht & 9th Air Forces", Stan Bishop & John A. Hey, MBE.
Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / Losses of the 8th & 9th AFs Vol I by Bishop & Hey p. 251