Date:	Thursday 28 August 1941
Time:	11:30
Type:	Blackburn Botha Mk I
Owner/operator:	4 AOS RAF
Registration:	L6417
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
Other fatalities:	11
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Holyhead -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Valley, Anglesey
Destination airport:	RAF West Freugh, Wigtownshire

Narrative:
Crashed into sea in rough weather on routine training flight. All crew killed, as well as 11 civilians attempting a rescue.
On 28 August 1941, a Blackburn Botha aircraft, L6417 came down into in the sea some 500m from the shore off Rhosnegir, after an aborted takeoff from RAF Valley. Eye witnesses tell how it came down in the sea not half a mile from the shore and remained afloat. Two of the airmen were washed away, but another managed to cling to the aircraft. The alarm was given and two 17-year-old boys set off in a boat, but they had not gone far when they were overturned. They succeeded in reaching the aircraft and persuaded the remaining Polish airman to let them help him towards the shore. Clinging to the upturned boat, they reached a beach defence post to which the Polish crewmen clung whilst the boys were washed ashore. A group of soldiers formed a human chain and managed to bring the boys back onshore, but the Polish airmen suffering from shock and exposure was swept from his holdfast. Then a larger boat put off containing Police Constable Arthyr of Rhosenigr; First Office Arthur Owen, Merchant Navy, home to attend the funeral of his father; and six soldiers. The tide had washed the aeroplane nearer to the shore, about a quarter of a mile, but the boat did not reach the plane. It was overturned and the men flung from it. Three reappeared clinging to an oar the other five were struggling in the water. RAF planes dropped Mae Wests (lifejackets) to the men in the water, but heavy seas drove the lifejackets away. Soldiers and airmen got ropes and waded out as far as they could making human chains in their efforts to reach the men who were being washed towards the beach. But as they reached deeper water they were swept back by the force of the waves. One soldier managed to swim out far enough to grasp an oar to which two soldiers were clinging and he brought them safely to land. The names of rescuers who lost their lives are: Police Constable Arthur; First Officer Arthur Owen; Second Lt Whysall, Royal Artillery, Sergeant Major Moger, Royal Artillery; and Evan Jones, auxiliary Coastguard.
The two 17 year olds, John Wood of Chester and Derrick Baynham of Walton-on-Thames, received the George medal a monetary reward from the Air Ministry and silver cases from General Skiorsky, Commander in Chief of Polish Forces. The RNLI Bronze Medal was awarded to Sgt C Jackson, Lance Bombardier T Taylor, Gunner J W Parkinson, and aircraftsman A E Atkinson, and posthumously to those who had died in the rescue attempt.

The crew killed:
Sgt K.S Rosiewicz (P.782028)
LAC T.A Dixon (1119294)
LAC F.G Glockler (1376289)
Rescuers killed:
2Lt P.T Whysall
W/O A.W Moger
Gnr R.K Simons
Gnr C.H Thornton
Gnr S.Wilkins
LAC L.A Ford
AC1 D.W Bannister
PC G.Arthur
R.Eton
E.Jones
A.J Owen

RAF Valley News
Chambers Jones, R, 1995, Bless 'Em All: Aspects of World War in North West Wales 1939-45, pg36-9
Halley, J J, 1979, Royal Air Force Aircraft L1000 to L9999, pg43
Halley, J J, 1993, Royal Air Force Aircraft L1000 to N9999, pg72
Newspaper cutting contained within scrapbooks 'Reference to Shipwrecks in North Wales', Gwynedd Archive Service document reference GAS XM/2686/4
Sloan, R, 2002, Anglesey Air Accidents during the 20th Century
Wings of War over Gwynedd - Roy Sloane

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
02-Feb-2013 00:12	PKM	Added
06-Aug-2013 19:14	JINX	Updated [Operator]
26-Dec-2013 08:32	Nepa	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
08-Feb-2017 16:12	ORD	Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative]
19-Nov-2018 21:25	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Operator]