On October 13, 1941, a British Royal Air Force bomber, the Wellington MK 1c, X 9822 BL-J, crashed. The Wellington takes off at 19:26 on 12 October 1941, together with two other aircraft, from Alconbury in Great Britain, bound for Bremen. Visibility is limited and therefore the device quickly gains altitude to rise above the clouds. On board are eight heavy bombs with a total weight of about 1800 kilos. There are six crew members on board. At 10:20 p.m., the base in England receives a message that the mission has been aborted. The aircraft has not reached Bremen and is returning home. The bombs are dropped along the way. The aircraft flies alone and is spotted by a German radar post, probably Schlei van Schiermonnikoog. A message is sent to Leeuwarden Air Base and Oberst Leutnant Helmut Lent, a fighter pilot, is directed to the Wellington.
The moment Lent sees the Wellington, it flies above the Lauwerszee, near Zoutkamp. Lent comes flying at great speed and positions himself under the Wellington, where he cannot be seen. Then he slows down and pulls his device up. With the salvos that he then fires, he hits the engines, after which the aircraft catches fire. It is just after midnight when the plane crashes burning in a meadow near Westergeest.
Things happen so fast that the crew has no time to leave the plane. All six occupants are killed. They are buried with military honors, under great public interest from the local population, in the cemetery near the church in Westergeest, where their graves can still be found.