Mizoram

After touchdown on runway 35 at Lengpui Airport, the four engine airplane encountered difficulties to stop within the remaining distance. It overran, rolled through bushes, went down an embankment and came to rest, broken in two. All 14 occupants were rescued, among them eight were injured. The plane was dispatched to Lengpui to pick up 92 soldiers from the Myanmar Army who should be repatriated to Myanmar on behalf of the 7th Squadron. These Myanmarese soldiers crossed over to India last week, following gunfights with ethnic insurgent group 'Arakan Army'.

The crew left Hathazari Airfield located north of Chittagong at 0708LT with three other RAF C-47 on a supply mission to the 14th Army. Enroute, weather conditions worsened and all three other crews decided to return to Hathazari while FD820 continued. Later, while cruising in poor weather conditions with low clouds, the aircraft hit the slope of a mountain located 19 km northeast of Lunglei. All five crew members were killed.
Crew (117th Squadron):
F/O Deckland Archibald Bayley, pilot,
F/O W. R. Thomson, copilot,
F/Lt J. W. Slater, navigator,
P/O J. E. Long, flight engineer,
P/O E. E. Newell, navigator.