Lancaster bomber over Hastings and St Leonards

The plane was returning for home after a short display over Bexhill, having also performed at both Airbourne and Folkestone air shows over the weekend.

The four engine Avro Lancaster played a vital role in World War 2 and was immortalised for the role it played in the destruction of the dams of the Ruhr Valley, carrying modified ‘bouncing’ bombs. The action earned a squadron of Lancasters the name of ‘Dambusters’.

The planes carried a crew of seven. Throughout the latter half of 1944, a series of high-profile bombing missions were performed by the Lancaster against the German battleship Tirpitz. Only 35 Lancasters completed more than 100 successful operations each, and 3,249 were lost in action.

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Today only 17 Lancaster bombers remain intact, including four in the UK. Only two Lancs remain airworthy – one is in Canada, and the other, which flew over Hastings, is based at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, where the Ministry of Defence maintains and crews it for events and flypasts.

Rusty Waughman, who was 100 in January, is one of the very few Lancaster bomber pilots still alive and able to tell their wartime tales not so much of derring do, but of survival against sometimes overwhelming odds. He recalls: “Surviving was 99 per cent luck. We had bits shot off us and holes knocked into us.”