1945

On August 24th, 1942 the British Lt Wooll of No. 1 PRU had to shut down one of the engines on a recognition flight over Venice due to overheating. He realised he could not make it back to GB and decided to land in Bern-Belp. He did not manage to destroy the aircraft before the swiss military took control over it. Although Switzerland was neutral in WWII, Britain was afraid the aircraft could fall into the hands of the german military. This was the first Mosquito to fall into non-allied hands. On August 1st, 1943 Switzerland and Britain agreed, that the aircraft was allowed to fly under swiss registration E-42. It was first used for test flights by swiss military and was sold to Swissair in July 1944. In October 1944 Swissair started doing postal-flights with the aircraft beginning January 1945 under the Registration HB-IMO. It was also used for instruction flights for swissair pilots.
After the end of the war Swissair stopped its postal operations and returned the aircraft to the swiss military which flew it until August 1946. Thereafter the aircraft was broken up and used for spare parts, beeing deleted from the swiss register on July 1st, 1951.

HB-IMO	De Havilland D.H.98 Mosquito #	1945	ex DK 310 of Royal Air Force. The Aircraft hat to make an emergency landing at Bern-Belpmoos and was cofisquated by the swiss air force. It was given to Swissair for pilot training. Used only during a few months by Swissair.

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Last update July 2007

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