‘Masters of the Air’ Bids Its First Farewell to One of Its Poster Characters

The third episode of Apple TV+’s war drama Masters of the Air, titled “Part Three,” delivered some truly intense aerial combat scenes as the pilots of the 100th Bomb Group tackled one of their most intense missions—both in real life and in the show. 

*** Spoilers ahead for Masters of the Air up until its third episode. Be warned. ***

That mission was the August 1943 Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission, which planned to bomb both German cities in an attempt to deal a severe blow to the country’s aircraft industry. While the mission did inflict severe damage on its Regensburg targets, it came at a massive cost of life for the American forces—so much so that this particular type of mission, with a target far beyond the range of fighter escorts for the bombers, was actually discontinued for a time.

Masters of the Air recreates the pre-departure tension of pilots and crews, as the mission’s official starting time gets pushed back and back because of adverse weather, as well as the bloody battle that takes place in the skies above Germany when the B-17s are met by the Luftwaffe’s fighters.

And among the several fortresses that get shot down by the Germans, there’s also the one piloted by Lieutenant Curtis Biddick, played by Barry Keoghan of The Banshees of Inisherin, The Eternals, and Saltburn fame.

As his plane is going down, Lieutenant Biddick gives his crew the order to evacuate, but stays behind to help his copilot, who has been wounded by German fire and can’t extricate himself from his seat. Still, there’s sadly not much he can do—the last shot of him is his wide eyes before his B-17 crashes to the ground and goes up in flames at the force of the impact.

So is Curt Biddick really dead in Masters of the Air?

Lieutenant Biddick might have managed an emergency landing in Scotland in the show’s second episode, but there was no escaping this crash.

It’s exactly what happened to the real Lieutenant Curtis Biddick, as reported on the official website of the American Air Museum in Britain. His B-17 suffered an oxygen fire due to damage to its fuselage some 40 miles north of Regensburg—causing the death of four members of the crew, who remained trapped inside the plane, including Lt. Biddick himself.

So even though Barry Keoghan was one of the biggest names attached to the project and took front and center during the show’s pre-release promotions, together with actors Austin Butler and Callum Turner—who play Masters of the Air’s main characters, Majors Gale “Buck” Cleven and John “Bucky” Egan respectively—his run on the show is officially over. 

Considering that Masters of the Air was filmed in the first half of 2021 and that principal photography on Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin—for which Keoghan was nominated as Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards—took up the latter half of that same year, it makes sense that Keoghan’s time was limited.

(featured image: Apple TV+)