“Border Line Pilots”: RCAF Aircrew, Crash Investigations and No. 22 OTU

Abstract : In 1941, RAF Bomber Command Operational Training Units (OTU) in the United Kingdom were created to produce crews for the bomber offensive from graduates of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Of the 4,000 RCAF deaths attributed to non-operational accidents, 1,498 occurred in this OTU phase. A study of No. 22 OTU accident reports, where the largest number of RCAF training fatalities occurred, provides insight into the stated official causes and underlying issues of the high accident rate. Of more recent interest is how one No. 22 OTU 1944 aircraft crash site decades later became a center of commemoration in Wales.