Haganah agents had acquired six scrap Bristol Beaufighter TF-10 aircraft in the U.K. After being repaired with the help of contacts, the agents formed a film company and used a script covering a period in the Battle of Britain.
Using forged clearance certificates from the Ministry of Civil Aviation, one scene involved the take-off of the aircraft. The plan was that this would in fact cover-up for a genuine take-off for a flight to Israel.
Four pilots took off shortly after the August Bank holiday from the Thames with flight plans indicating that they would fly to Exeter, but of course they never arrived there. They simply disappeared over the British Channel on their way to Israel.
One plane had crashed on August 30th 1948 (one day before the bank holiday) in a test flight in which the pilot, Julian MacNeile Verschoyle-Campbell, was killed. He had been de-mobbed a year previously from the R.A.F. One of the remaining aircraft was confiscated following the police investigation into the crash.
Author: Joe Woolf (researcher)