ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 25208
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| Date: | Thursday 14 October 1943 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Avro Anson Mk I |
| Owner/operator: | 2 (O) AFU RAF |
| Registration: | R9780 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 5 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Kells Brow, Whitehaven, Cumberland -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | RAF Millom, Cumberland |
On Thursday 14 October 1943 an Avro Anson aircraft (R9780) took off on a training flight from RAF Millom, Cumberland. At Whitehaven, about 30 miles to the north, the plane suffered structural failure leading to a crash and the loss of all five aircrew. It was subsequently found that there was an inherent defect in the structure, which would have been undetectable beforehand, and all similar aircraft were grounded for a time until reinforcement work was carried out to prevent a recurrence. By coincidence, Thursday 14 October 1943 was ‘Wings For Victory’ Day in Whitehaven, when Squadron Leader David M. Crook DFC –a Spitfire ‘Ace’ of the Battle of Britain handed over a plaque to the townsfolk in recognition of the Whitehaven exceeding its target to buy two Lancaster bombers. Immediately after the crash, Squadron Leader Crook and Mr John Roger Williams of ‘The Whitehaven News’ went to the site and took initially took control of the early part of the crash investigation.
Although many of the townsfolk of Whitehaven and almost all the schoolchildren of the town saw the crash, because of wartime censorship there was never a memorial to the five airmen – until Wednesday 10 September 2008, almost sixty five years later. Finally, a memorial seat was installed near the crash site, arranged by Whitehaven Heritage Action group. The seat was unveiled by relatives of two of the airmen of Flight R9780 and Mr Glynn Griffiths of RAF Millom Museum.
The five aircrew aboard Avro Anson R9780 that day were as follows: F/O Henry Joseph O’Gara from Glasgow, Sgt Vincent James Dunnigan of the USA, Sgt Thomas Inman of Yorkshire, Sgt Cyril Johnson of Cheshire and Sgt Rene Harold Murphy of Canada. A number of the stories posted to the BBC “People’s War” website mentioned this plane crash, including the son of Sgt Johnson and schoolchildren living in Whitehaven in 1943 who had just finished school when the crash occurred.
Sources:
http://2ndww.blogspot.co.uk/2008_09_01_archive.html
[LINK NOT WORKING ANYMORE:http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk/home/1.241049]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/19/a4638819.shtml
https://www.monkwray.cumbria.sch.uk/print.php?page_no=&category_id=174&return=1;
http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/collections/virtualmem/photoview/1526186/65553
Images:
Howden Road cemetery Silsden West Yorkshire The photo was taken today 5/2/2021
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 27-Sep-2008 01:00 | ASN archive | Added |
| 11-Apr-2012 20:54 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 10-Feb-2018 18:22 | Anon. | Updated [Narrative] |
| 27-Nov-2018 20:36 | Nepa | Updated [Operator, Nature, Operator] |
| 05-Feb-2021 17:22 | Raptor | Updated [Photo] |
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