Obituary - John MacDonald, WW2 flight engineer who won the DFC for daring operation to save stricken Lancaster

Attaching a lifeline to the inside of the fuselage while the pilot kept the aircraft steady, the 20-year-old crawled along the wing in the slipstream to put out the flames with a hand-held extinguisher.

The second port engine later caught fire, but this emergency did not require Mr MacDonald to leave the aircraft to deal with it. In his flying log, he simply wrote: "Port engines feathered due to fires. Returned to base on two starboard engines."

The young pilot officer was presented with the DFC by his station commander on behalf of King George IV, who noted his regret at not being able to pin on the richly deserved decoration in person.

John Service MacDonald was born in Renfrew on March 18, 1924 to Bernard and Elizabeth MacDonald. His father was a carpenter at the nearby Babcock & Wilcox factory, which made boilers for power stations around the world. The family had deep roots in the Clyde Valley going back six generations.

He was educated at Glebe High Public School, which became Renfrew High School, and grew up an enthusiastic member of the Boy Scouts based at Renfrew North Church. With the Second World War underway, after leaving school he joined the Home Guard and took his first job with Northern & Scottish Airways at Renfrew Aerodrome in the maintenance crew.

Recruited by a captain of the airline who was impressed by Mr MacDonald's affiliation to the church and its scouts, he was initially employed making repairs to the fabric covers on the wings of de Havilland Dragon Rapide aircraft (he later taught the herring bone stitch to his son while he was in his father's old scout group).

When old enough to enlist, he decided he did not want to "be in the mud" so he applied and was accepted for service in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, travelling down south to Lord's cricket ground, which had been requisitioned as an aircrew receiving centre to process the many thousands of young men going to war.

He recalled training at night when the student aircrew had to run down to a beach, receive and decode Morse signals from a nearby lighthouse then sprint back with the message. His first aircraft was the Stirling bomber followed by the Lancaster with 49 squadron at RAF Coningsby.

MacDonald described dropping 10,000lb bunker-busting bombs, known as cookies, and how the aircraft would rise up after releasing such a heavy load. He visited the wrecked German U-boat pens in Norway just after the war and took photographs of gaping holes the bombs had made in the reinforced concrete roofs.

Crews were nervous carrying such powerful bombs, given the amount of enemy flak from the ground or unexpected cannon fire from marauding night fighters. He was injured in the ankle by flak but joked that the real pain was not from the injury itself but from having his bandage changed.

He was demobbed after the war, having beaten the odds of survival in Bomber Command by completing a remarkable 48 missions over enemy territory. Aircrew considered themselves lucky to be alive after finishing the standard tour of 30 sorties.

Mr MacDonald resumed his career with Scottish Airways, which became BEA and later British Airways, going on to serve 42 years with the BA organisation, latterly at Glasgow Airport. With Scottish Airways, he volunteered for the air ambulance service contracted by HIMS, the Highlands and Islands Medical Service, which became a model for the future NHS.

His position as operations officer involved organising air ambulance aircraft and crew for call-outs, and it was on such an operation that he cheated death. On September 28, 1958 he arranged for an air ambulance and crew to fly to Islay to pick up a patient. He would usually accompany the crew but due to having bad flu and the stormy, wet night, he decided to remain. The flight subsequently crashed on the hillside above Islay airport with the loss of the pilot and radio officer, who were friends of Mr MacDonald, and a nurse.

Mr MacDonald was an unassuming man who never spoke of his wartime experiences. It was only after the BBC began recording its archive of wartime memories, WW2 People's War, that he began to open up to his family. Asked how he could have faced such terrible losses and climbed onto the wing of his aircraft to put out the fire, he replied that he was only 20 and didn't know any better. He added that as an old man, he could scarcely believe he had done such a thing.

A member and elder of Renfrew North Church, he enjoyed gardening and holidays with his wife Vera, who predeceased him in 1999. Several years later he was introduced to May Darling, who became his close companion, helped to look after him and visited him loyally at the Erskine home for veterans at Bishopton, where he spent his final days.

He is survived by a sister Davina, children Valerie and Gavin, grandchildren Ross, Craig, Gillian, Pamela and Ian, and three great-grandchildren Emma, Elise and baby Amelia.

CAMPBELL THOMAS