The Catalina was attached to the US Navy Patrol Squadron 52 (VP 52), stationed at the Naval Operation Base, King’s Point, Bermuda. During an early morning gunnery exercise on, while attempting a pass over the target area on the water of Great Sound, the aircraft dove into the water at a high rate of speed five miles bearing 200øT from Gibbs Hill Lighthouse, Bermuda, causing the plane to crash. Only one witness saw the complete maneuver leading up to the crash. He states that the aircraft was in level flight about one thousand feet, when it suddenly nosed down in a steep dive and crashed into the water with no apparent effort to recover. Three other witnesses first saw the airplane after it was in a dive at an estimated altitude of 400’. They agreed that the aircraft was in a 60deg dive with the left wing down approximately 45deg until the crash.