Originally Posted by
Quietplease
The 13Sqn PR7 was being flown by a 58Sqn crew. It was a Meteor that got them. The morning flight had been unsuccessful and they returned in the afternoon. Medium level cloud so they trying to get the pics from about 15,000 looking for the Migs coming down from Russia. Don''t think it was a dogfight, they didn't see it coming.
Pilot and nav survived but jump seat didn't.
On landing they had to persuade the Lebanese army they were not Israeli spies.
Later met the pilot who was a BCal 707 captain. He was quite surprised I knew his history. There was a D notice but the Telegraph seemed to miss it and printed a very short piece about it.
Canberra versus almost anything up around 50,000 was a winner but once you got down to medium levels the Meteor was better, you could pull so much more g and much more manoeuvrable.
Had many dogfights with this combination usually with Neill Williams.
Think the details are pretty accurate but the usual disclaimer due to passing time and senility.
There is a description of this event by the pilot - Fl Lt Hunter- on the International Bomber Command Centre Losses Database....link below. The Canberra was carrying an extra crewman whose task was to keep a look out for hostile aircraft using the sextant periscope!
Loss of Canberra