A court-martial sitting at Le Mans had to consider the case of a young airman, Jean Yves de Bail, aged 21, whose heavy bombing plane came down last summer in a garden at Chartres, wrecking an arbour in which M. and Mme. Manceau and their children were taking their lunch. M. Manceau was killed and his wife was seriously injured. All the children escaped.
The inquiry showed that Lieutenant le Bail left Chateauroux with four passengers without first checking the amount of petrol in his tanks. One of his engines began to run badly, and one of the passengers, a pilot himself, suggested that he should land in a field.
