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Lt. Will Patton
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Since it is not officially known what happened in the cockpit of Lt. Patton's Mustang, the following lines explain what may have happened:
On board of his P-51 Mustang, Lt. Patton struggled to remain in the formation. His instrumentation panel began showing alarming signs, and he tried to communicate with his squadron commander, but his radio produced only inaudible static. His instruments are clouded, and he can no longer trust them. Now he must face an extremely dangerous situation, best faced by the experienced pilot - and Lt. Patton was. Being an experienced pilot, William Patton realized that he was in an extremely dangerous situation, and that he had to utilize all his experiences. As explained by Dick Atkins (historian of the 8th AAF), a pilot who cannot depend on his instruments in heavy fog is in trouble. Hence, it is impossible to be confident of maneuvering the airplane. If the plane would begin to descend to the left, even an experienced pilot might think the descension to be to the right. If then the plane went into a spiral under these conditions, a pilot could easily make incorrect corrections in an attempt to correct the situation. And of course, what needed to be done that wasn't done makes things all the worse. This is what happened to William Patton, and more recently, John Kennedy, Jr.
 Three combat planes were lost in the sky, while five others were trying to find their way. The 15th mission of January was plagued with misfortune. The squadron commander, Lt. Col. Vince Masters, sent an order out to those who could hear it to make a 180-degree turn. Flying with Lt. Patton, Lt. Brian J. Booker began the turn, and, in the fog, never saw Lt. Patton again.
Lt. Patton did not hear the order, and was struggling to maintain his P-51, that was progressively losing altitude in a circular movement to the left. In spite of all of his efforts with the control stick, he could not regain control of the plane. Without his instruments or visibility, it was virtually impossible to know whether he was flying level, up, or down towards the ground. Counting on having held the altitude Lt. Booker
when he began having instrument difficulties, he estimated the distance to the ground to be 1000 meters (3000 feet). If he were not to regain control of his machine, he knew what the inevitable tragedy would be, which would happen in minutes at the most. In a situation like this, explained Dick Atkins, the pilots have a good chance of parachuting out of the plane. But, at the time, there was not an ejectable seat, and the maneuver which enabled the pilot to be able to bail out was difficult. It was first necessary to unhook oneself from the cockpit, get out of the seat and then onto the wing, and make sure to clear the tail when jumping (a common and frequent accident). Overall, a pilot always had the temptation to regain control of his plane to avoid the decision to abandon ship, which caused a pilot grief, and even humiliation.
Probably, William Patton did not give up fighting for his plane until he saw the ground at 500 meters (1500 feet) below. In the community of Longueville, France, certain citizens remember to this day the tremendous noise made by the crash. The P-51 Mustang of Lt. William Patton crashed into the ground.
The particular place that Lt. Patton crashed was well known to the French, as it happened to be a low area that collected water from a spring, and also accepted drainage water from heavy rains. The ground was a bog area, made of clay and silt, such that it was virtually like quicksand. A farmer's horse had previously walked out into it and sank, while onlookers watched, unable to help. Thus, Lt. Patton's Mustang was almost entirely embedded into the soft ground. The tail was yet visible, and the French knew that it was an American pilot, whom had come to liberate them, yet they could do nothing - emotion was running high.
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