I well remember this one. I was at Patrington on my first tour, and was on position beside the guy controlling the Ltg in question. It was a lousy night, stormy, driving rain, low cloud and high winds. We had all been called in because of the Tac Eval, and my Flt Cdr was controlling the Ltg that crashed. The Shac target came in low heading due West into the Staxton Wold overhead. The Ltg was under him because the AI23B radar gave a better picture looking up. At that height on look down all it would have seen was sea returns. Both a/c dissapeared into the overhead (about 30 mile radius of clutter) and the Ltg was called, but no reply. We got the Shac to double back and start a search, but nothing was found . The Shac stayed for several hours if I remember correctly. The Air Clues report gives the story, The pilot skimmed the sea, couldn't bang out, so opened the hood and jumped over the side. Over the next few weeks the lid closed gently and that was that. No idea why he wasn't found, but he didn't have his dingy pack, that stayed in the a/c, so if he couldn't inflate his Mae West, he wouldn't have survived for long in that sea. sad day for us all, and made such an impression on me that I remember it vividly after 36 odd years.
My old Flt Cdr is still around, and I see him from time to time. He was a damn good controller.
I am fairly sure that as a result of this they put a min speed of 200kts on Ltgs low level. Perhaps someone can comment on this??