The aircraft landed about 500 meters off the island of Linosa, a small island south of Sicily.
It floated for a few minutes before sinking under the waves, giving local fishermen time to row out and try to save the four crew members.
They are now identified as Royal Air Force pilot Sergeant Francis William Baum. FlightSgtAlick Greaves, an observer of the Royal Australian Air Force; Sergeant William Edward Fincham, a radio operator and gunner of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Sergeant Robert Tettrel Purslow, a gunner of the Royal Air Force.
Sgt Greaves died in shock when a bomber crashed into the sea and was buried in the War Cemetery of Mejez Elbab in Tunisia. The other three were rescued.
Tragically, Sgt Purslow died in December 1943 at a prisoner-of-war camp in Wolfsberg, Austria.
The aircraft was discovered on the seabed in 2016, but it took six years to put together the records of the war and the witness testimonies of the locals before the locals identified it.