Simon Glancey has submitted the following:
Sgt. Coates was killed when Avro Lancaster III ED606 JO-E of 463 (R.A.A.F.) Squadron collided with another Lancaster, ND637 CF-L of 625 Squadron while preparing to land at R.A.F. Waddington after a mission to Stuttgart. The Lancasters collided near Branston, 4 miles south east of Lincoln, and crashed with the loss of all fourteen crew members from both aircraft.
Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War: 1944; W.R. Chorley; 1997; Midland Counties Publications; ISBN 0 904597 91 1, pages 115 and 116
Also killed in the same incident were Sgt. J.G.B. Jameson, Sgt. A.W. Aiston and Sgt. J.D. Dadswell
James Arthur Coates is remembered in Shildon on S122.02 and S122.05 and in Bishop Auckland on B140.01