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Abstract from the Kenley Revival page.
The weather was clear over Kenley airfield on the morning of 23rd November, 1941. In the absence of ‘Al’ Deere, Flight Lieutenant John W. R. Kempe, “B” Flight’ s leader, was in charge of 602 Squadron. With 6/10ths blue sky, and 4/10ths cumulus cloud at medium height, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to practice cloud formation flying, and Kempe had two young Canadian pilots who would benefit from it. Sgt. Leonard Joseph Burke had been operational for a month and was practicing to become a section leader, and Sgt. Ross Alexander MacKay was yet to fly his first sortie. The pair took off from Kenley at 1010hrs with Kempe’s permission for a one hour flight – Burke flying Spitfire VB, AD251, in the lead, and MacKay in AD256. Their Flight Mechanics, LAC George Outch and AC2 Sydney Turner, were happy that the aircraft were serviceable and the pilots were properly secured in their cockpits when they took off.
At 1050hrs, Biggin Hill reported that there had been a crash to the North-east of their airfield, at Titsey Hill, near the BBC station at Tatsfield.
Kenley’s Wing Commander Flying, John R. A. Peel, also visited the crash site in the immediate aftermath, accompanied by the station Engineering Officer, F/Lt. William G. Bates. They found that two separate “lanes” had been cut into the trees just below the brow of the hill where the two Spitfires had crashed at high speed, scattering wreckage over a wide area. From their appearance, it seemed that the aircraft had been in formation, and not diving to any appreciable extent. The cockpit of one of the Spitfires had caught fire after impact. The weather was clear at midday, but an army sentry who was on the scene said that visibility had been 20 yards at the time of the accident – the morning fog in the valleys having risen to obscure the high ground. The enquiry into the accident found that, tragically, Sergeants Burke and MacKay had flown into this low cloud, not realising the danger that lurked beneath.
