Research by Group Captain Steve Lloyd, former OC of JARIC and RAF AHB, suggests that sortie FM/5584 was flown by the French Air Force using a Richard Labrele Planiphote camera. Roger Henrard, one of the FAF pilots of their Lockheed 12, also used the Richard Hand-held Altiphoto camera. The origin of the Anglo-French collection programme stems from the FAF's air policing for the League of Nations of a No Fly Zone centred on the Rhine valley. When the Germans re-entered the Rhineland the operation went covert using so-called 'Tourist Pilots'.