John Russell KEANE. Flying Officer, Pilot 409839 Royal Australian Air Force attached to RAF No 5 Operational Training Unit at RAF Long Kesh, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Born 3 September 1917 at Camperdown, Victoria to Gerald Thomas Keane and Freda Grace Keane of 194 East Brunswick Victoria Australia.
Enlisted 10 October 1941 at Melbourne, Victoria and posted to No 11 Elementary Flying Training School. He was court-martial 7 May 1942. No charge sheets in his records. He embarked 19 August 1942 for flying training with the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was part of a four man crew in Lockheed Hudson aircraft AM 694 which crashed at Loughamore near Dunadry, County Antrim 29 November 1943 killing all the crew, he was aged 26.
Laid to rest in Eglantine All Saints Churchyard, County Down, Northern Ireland 4 December 1943
Cause of death source.
https://aviationmuseumwa.org.au/
Cause of death
He was part of a crew of four in a Lockheed Hudson aircraft AM 694 from Number No 5 R.A.F. Operational Training Unit RAF Long Kesh. At 1520 hours on the 29 November 1943, Hudson AM694 of No 5 Operational Training Unit, piloted by F/O Keane took off from RAF Long Kesh, County Antrim to practice a non-operational bombing detail on the Lough Neagh range. At 1609 hours the aircraft
completed the exercise and proceeded to an area around Templepatrick. It then proceeded to carry out steep turns around Loughermore Estate, near Dunadry, Co. Antrim where it carried out unauthorised flying instead of returning to base. During one of these turns the pilot both engines appeared to be throttled back and the aircraft began to lose height rapidly and continued to do so until just before impact. The aircraft stalled during a steep turn to port with insufficient height for the Pilot to regain control. It appeared to right itself for a second or so, but it then hit the ground with the port wing first. Both engines were under power at the time of impact, when the aircraft broke up and burst into flames. Two died of injuries the other two died at the scene. He died at the scene aged 26.
The other crew were
Flight Sergeant 418001 Norman Francis Dougald McCallum, died of injuries aged 23.
Flight Sergeant 418542 William Murray Mullins, died of injuries aged 29
Francis Aloysius CONNELL. Flying Officer Navigator Bomb Aimer 421168 killed aged 26
