Commando disappeared without a trace on 27 March 1945 over the North Atlantic Ocean, while on a flight from RAF Northolt to Lajes Field in the Azores, en route to Ottawa in Canada.

Volunteer pilot William Vanderkloot, a US citizen serving with RAF Ferry Command since June 1941, delivered a specially modified long-range Consolidated Liberator II in July 1942.

Churchill, clad in robe and slippers, offered him a drink, beginning a relationship that had Vanderkloot flying the Prime Minister on sensitive diplomatic trips across war-torn Europe, Russia, North Africa and the Middle-East.

[5][6] After the second extended trip,[2] Churchill never again flew in Commando, instead switching to Ascalon, an Avro York (a transport aircraft based on the Lancaster bomber, with a larger fuselage) with an all-British crew.

[7] In September 1943 Liberator AL504 was withdrawn from VIP service and flown to a Tucson, Arizona USAAF base, where it underwent major modifications and emerged as a one-off transport, lengthened by seven feet, with single tail fin, extended fuselage, and upgraded engines.

Flown by Wing Commander William Biddell OBE DFC, the aircraft took off from RAF Northolt at 23:00 hours GMT on Monday 26 March 1945 to fly to Ottawa, Canada, with a refueling stop at Lajes Field in the Azores.

RAF Coastal Command, assisted by the Royal Navy, commenced a series of searches which were described by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in his announcement in the House of Commons on 28 March 1945.

Close to the flight path which Commando would have been following over the ocean in towards Lajes Field, aircrew of the searching RAF Coastal Command aircraft spotted some yellow dinghies, a small amount of wreckage and an oil patch on the surface.