Oxford 1 left Bell Block to undertake machine gun firing off the Taranaki coast and then proceed to Kawhia before returning to base. The last transmission heard was at 10.41 on the 23^rd Oct 1942. Despite extensive searches the aircraft and crew could not be located.

In 1974, two men stumbled across the wreck in a valley in the Touakai Ranges, a fallen Rimu tree obscuring the site. The remains of the crew, Rodney Dandy, Graham Martin, Edward Dodson and Douglas Martyn, were returned to their home towns for burial. [For Your Tomorrow, Errol Martyn, Vol.1, p.261]

“An aircraft of the R.N.Z.A.F., engaged in a coastal training flight, was overdue last evening. When it failed to return to the base a search was immediately instituted, without success. The occupants of the plane were Pilot-Officer Rodney George Dandy, Mrs. R. G. Dandy. Wellington (wife); Sergeant Douglas Gordon Martyn, Mrs. E. M. Martyn, Waihi (mother); Sergeant Graham Macleod Martin, Mrs. G. M. Martin, Christchurch (wife), and Sergeant Edward Reid Dodson, Mrs. V. L. Dodson, Nelson (wife).” [Northern Advocate, 24/10/1942, p4]