Possible causes of Donegal plane crash to be investigated in BBC documentary

The possible causes of a plane crash in Donegal are to be investigated in a new documentary airing on the BBC. 

Tubaiste sa Phortach will broadcast on BBC Two Northern Ireland and BBC iPlayer on Sunday 29 March at 10pm. 

Leonard Ashby Court was 23 years old when the RAF Wellington bomber he was flying crashed and burst into flames at the foot of Errigal Mountain on February 28, 1943. All six crew members perished in the crash.

The plane had taken off from the RAF Limavady base in Northern Ireland and bits of debris from the crash are still visible in the bog where it landed in County Donegal.

In a new film, Tubaiste sa Phortach, made by Clean Slate Television for BBC Gaeilge with support from Northern Ireland Screen’s Irish Language Broadcast Fund, journalist Kevin Magee investigates the possible causes of the crash.

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“This programme came about as the result of a random visit I made to the crash site when I came upon it while cycling in a remote part of Donegal,” Kevin Magee says.”I saw bits of debris from the plane lying in a secluded bog more than 80 years after the crash, and instantly, I wanted to find out more. I then set off on a journey to try to establish what happened to the plane and its crew.”

Kevin tracks down the pilot’s surviving son, Ian Court, in Leicestershire and accompanies the 84-year-old as he fulfils a lifelong ambition by finally paying his respects at the site where his father died.

Kevin also meets the local community in County Donegal, who have erected a memorial to the fallen RAF crewmen.

As well as Pilot Leonard Ashby Court, the other victims included Belfast men John Steen Campbell and James Gilmore, and from England Geoffrey Scott-Farthing, John D’Arcy Wal and Ronald William Gutteridge.

The film contains rare footage showing inside the remains of the RAF base at Limavady, where the crew was based in 1943. Kevin also travels to the Brooklands Museum in Weybridge, Surrey, where one of the few examples of the aircraft still exists, to discover more about the Wellington bomber.

Tubaiste sa Phortach will broadcast on BBC Two Northern Ireland and BBC iPlayer on Sunday 29 March at 10pm and is part of BBC Gaeilge’s Seachtain na Gaeilge season of programming.