[vtrelut]

Since I installed version 1.7, I noticed I was easily shot at the engine by bombers' rear gunners (allied Blenheims and A-20s AIs) when attacking from behind; it seems that this already unsafe attacking posture has become suicidal?

Apart from this, what Scharnhost1943 described above is fully correct; it was there before the mods; when taking off, either switch on auto pilot quickly, or only after you reach a decent speed and altitude, or your plane will crash, with a modded or unmodded game.