A memorial service for 14 dead airmen will be held at the abandoned Amarda Road Air Strip at Rasgovindpur in Mayurbhanj district on Friday.
On July 26, 1945, two British Royal Air Force B-24 Liberator four-engine bombers, EW225 and EW247, had collided at a low altitude.
The aircrafts were based at the secret Amarda Road airfield and were part of a six-plane contingent from the Air Fighting Training Unit engaged in a formation flying exercise during the Second World War.
Fourteen airmen, the crews of the two aircrafts, had died in the crash.
“Wreaths will be laid for each of the dead airmen. The ceremony will be attended by local people including school children,” said war historian Anil Dhir who has conducted research on the air crash.
This year, the foundation stone for a Peace Museum being built near the airfield will be laid. Many artifacts, photographs and models of the World War II era have been collected and will be displayed at the museum, which will be ready in six months, Dhir added.
The Amarda Road airstrip, as it was called in war terminology, spreads across an area of nearly 800 acre. Built in the 1940s at a cost of Rs 3 crore, it was eventually abandoned after the war, informed Dhir.