Former Air Commodore Keith Parsons was born at Scottsdale in 1914 and joined the RAAF in 1935 as an air cadet.

He learnt to fly a Tiger Moth at Point Cook, later teaching other pilots to fly both the Tiger Moth and Liberator aircraft.

He saw his first combat service as commanding officer and later wing commander of No 7 Squadron, receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross for his courage, hard work and devotion to duty.

In 1944, Air Commodore Parsons was posted to Bomber Command in the UK flying over 100 combat missions in the European theatre, including some as the commanding officer of the famous 460 Squadron.

In details of his career released by the Defence Department yesterday, he recalled one mission over Germany which was very nearly his last.

While flying at around 19,000 feet with no navigation lights, a Lancaster bomber suddenly appeared out of the dark, heading straight for his own plane.

"I shoved the stick hard forward and this bloke wiped right across the top of us smashing the canopy on the top and then collected my two port engines," he said.

The aircraft became unmanageable and went into a tight spin.

Unable to bale out the normal way, he told his crew to bale out and then managed to climb through the aircraft's shattered canopy.

His parachute opened but had been badly ripped and collapsed as he hit the ground. He was lucky to survive the fall from about 30 metres.

Air Commodore Parsons died on June 27, one day short of his 96th birthday.