Date:	Friday 14 June 1940
Time:	19:15
Type:	Vickers Wellesley Mk I
Owner/operator:	14 Sqn RAF
Registration:	K7743
MSN:	KU-C
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Red Sea, off Massawa -   Eritrea
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Port Sudan, Sudan
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Vickers Wellesley Mk.I K7743 (KU-C) 14 Squadron, RAF: Written off (destroyed) when lost (Failed To Return) from combat operations over Eritrea. Pilot (flying solo) was killed. According to the official Air Ministry file into the incident (File AIR 81/904): "Wellesley K7743 failed to return from an operational flight, 14 June 1940. Pilot Officer R P B H Plunkett: missing presumed dead".

Took off at 15:30 hours from RAF Port Sudan, with another aircraft (Wellesely L2652) to attack the Acico petrol installation at Massawa, Eritrea. The pilot of Wellesley K7743 had a theory that the Wellesley would make a good single seat dive bomber, and wanted to test out his theory on this raid. K7743 was last Seen heading out to sea over the Red Sea after completing its bombing mission, and was claimed as having been shot down by Ten Visintini of 412 Squadriglia.

According to the Wikipedia entry on the Vickers Wellesley for this period (see link #8):

"Although obsolete, the Wellesley formed a major part of the British Commonwealth bomber forces, mainly carrying out raids targeting Eritrea and northern Ethiopia. Sudan-based Wellesleys carried out their first bombing mission on 11 June 1940, against Asmara in Eritrea. Three days later, they were involved in their first air combat, when Capitano Mario Visintini, future top-scoring biplane ace of the Second World War, intercepted a pair of Wellesleys from 14 Squadron on their way to bomb Massawa. Visintini, who was flying a Fiat CR.42, shot down aircraft K7743, at 19:15 hours, flown by Pilot Officer Reginald Patrick Blenner-Hassett Plunkett. It was the first of Visintini's 16 air victories in Eastern Africa."

Crew of Wellesley K7743:
Pilot Officer Reginald Patrick Blenner-Hassett Plunkett, RAF 40849, posted 14/06/1940, as missing, presumed killed in action.

As no trace of Wellesely K7743 or its pilot was ever found, he is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial - which is unusual for someone lost on operational service in the Middle East and African Theatre of Operations. It was more usual for missing airmen lost during operations in the Mediterranean, Middle East and Africa to be commemorated on the El Alamein memorial in Egypt

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft K1000-K9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1976 p 64)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/904: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502606
3. The Desert Air Force in World War II: Air Power in the Western Desert, 1940-1942 By Ken Delve
4. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1804452/plunkett,-reginald-p.-blenner-hassett/
5. Italian Aces of World War 2 (p 47) By Giorgio Apostolo
6. Gunby/Temple, RAF Bomber Losses in the Middle East and Mediterranean Vol.1
7. http://www.epibreren.com/ww2/raf/14_squadron.html
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_Wellesley#Operational_history
9. http://aircrewremembered.com/plunkett-reginald.html
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massawa#Italian_rule

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
27-Sep-2019 22:25	Dr. John Smith	Added
28-Sep-2019 10:20	stehlik49	Updated [Operator]