Date:	Friday 1 December 1939
Time:	day
Type:	Avro Anson Mk I
Owner/operator:	63 Sqn RAF
Registration:	N5073
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 5
Aircraft damage:	Aircraft missing
Location:	Celtic Sea, off the North coast of Cornwall -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Benson, Oxfordshire
Destination airport:	RAF Benson
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
The Anson I N5073 of 63 Sn RAF took off at 09:30 hrs on 1 December 1939 from RAF Benson, Oxfordshire, for a navigation training flight off Cornwall. It was to fly to Bude and then continue over the sea for 50 miles before returning to base via Trevose Head. It never reached Bude and was lost without a trace over the Celtic Sea.

Weather conditions were poor, the radio had failed and the most likely theory is that the compass was 180 degrees out or mis-read. The aircraft would have been unable to make a sun sight and presumably ran out of fuel before ditching. Search operations did not find any trace of the aircraft or its crew of five.

Crew (all lost):
Pilot Officer Charles Robey Coventry (pilot, aged 22, Australian, Service Number 40606)
Pilot Officer Angus Cameron (Observer, aged 22, Canadian, Service Number 41900)
Sgt Alvin Gordon Gibson (aged 19, Service Number 581212)
AC.2 Hugh Oliver Wilson Gormlay (aged 21, Service Number 543996)
AC.2 James Crompton Buckland (19 years old, Service Number 619734)

Coventry was an Australian who enlisted in the RAF before the war.

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft L1000-N9999 (James J. Halley, Air Britain, 1983)
2. "Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, vol 1: Aircraft and Crew lost during 1939-1940", by W R Chorley. ISBN 0-904597-85-7
3. http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/p-o-charles-robey-coventry-rafvr-australian.21846/
4. http://www.rcawsey.co.uk/Acc1939a.htm
5. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1085083/coventry,-charles-robey/
6. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1083902/cameron,-angus/
7. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1270767/gibson,-alvin-gordon/
8. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1798586/gormlay,-hugh-oliver-wilson/
9. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1530760/buckland,-james-crompton/
10. https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-avro-652-anson-i-atlantic-ocean-5-killed

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
01-Dec-2017 10:35	Laurent Rizzotti	Added
28-Apr-2018 21:10	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Other fatalities, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
28-Apr-2018 21:14	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
10-Nov-2018 22:19	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Destination airport, Operator]