Weather conditions were still not perfect for flying and in the following days, one Swordfish returning from a night patrol landed in the sea alongside the carrier, the crew were reported missing believed killed. A pitching deck caused one Swordfish to crash into the sea on take-off and another Swordfish crashed into the sea on take-off when its engine failed. One Swordfish taking off clipped the island superstructure losing off both wing tips. The pilot managed to get the aircraft into the air circled around jettisoning his depth charges and landed again without mishap. Landing on the heaving deck was just as dangerous, two Sea Hurricanes and two Swordfish missed the arrestor wires and ended up crashing into the safety barriers. On 24 March 1944 a Swordfish with its engine shot up and crew injured attempted to land back on "Vindex". It crash landed onto the flight deck coming to a stop from the end of the flight deck. Leaking petrol set the wreckage on fire, the crew were rescued but the fire exploded one of two depth charges stuck on their racks. A hole  by  was blown in the flight deck. After 16 days at sea "Vindex" returned to port. With two days flying lost because of the weather conditions, the Swordfish had amassed a creditable 275 flying hours and 122 deck landings by day and night. The Sea Hurricanes contributed another 47 hours flying and 39 deck landings.