ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 26901
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| Date: | Thursday 1 February 1945 |
| Time: | 19:34 UTC |
| Type: | Avro York C.1 |
| Owner/operator: | Royal Air Force (RAF) |
| Registration: | MW116 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 15 / Occupants: 19 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | off Lampedusa Island -
 United States of America
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | London. England |
| Luqa, Malta |
To the family members of the lost crew
This aircraft crashed into the sea and was destroyed during an attempted ditching in position 35 degrees 30 North/12 degrees 35 East (off Lampedusa Island) at 1934 hours GMT. This aircraft was one of the support aircraft carrying staff and other personnel involved in the Yalta Conference. There were a series of errors in navigation, the Met forecasts obtained by the wireless operator were out of date and the crew did not obtain any reliable radio bearings to allow them to reach Malta. The aircraft circled over Lampedusa for over an hour and it seems there was some confusion about whether they thought they were at Malta and could not pinpoint their position.
Crew and passengers:-
Pilot : Flight Lieutenant Alfred Eaton-Clark RAF 61030 (NCO:946088 : Commission Gazetted Friday 14 March, 1941) [Injured]
2nd Pilot : Flying Officer A V J Vernieux RAF [Injured]
Flight Engineer : Flight Sergeant Alfred Claude Jack Walker RAFVR 1806384 [Killed]
Navigator : Flight Lieutenant James William Holdaway RAF 133489 (NCO:742619 : Commission Gazetted Saturday 19 December, 1942) [Injured]
Wireless Operator : Leading Aircraftman John Chicken RAFVR 1467778 [Killed]
Air Gunner : Flying Officer Arthur Appleby RAF 53646 (NCO:652059 : Commission Gazetted Friday 17 December, 1943) [Killed]
Crew : Warrant Officer William Wright RAF 550968 [Killed]
Crew : Corporal H J Burge RAF [Injured]
Passenger : Mr Peter Noel Loxley Civilian Age 39 [Killed]
Passenger : Lieutenant Colonel (Army) Ivor Stuart Huntly Hooper (Army) 38594 [Killed]
Passenger : Lieutenant Colonel (Army) Wilfred George Newey (Army) 32074 [Killed]
Passenger : Captain (Army) Albany Kennett (Barney) Charlesworth (Army) 59123 [Killed]
Passenger : Captain (Army) William Henry Finch (Army) 77338 [Killed]
Passenger : Mr Armine Roderick Dew Civilian Age 39 [Killed]
Passenger : Mr John Chaplin Civilian Age 34 [Killed]
Passenger : Captain (Army) Robert MacDonald Guthrie Civilian Age 48 [Killed]
Passenger : Inspector (Police) Harry Joseph Battley (Police) Age 36 [Killed]
Passenger : Miss Patricia Maxwell Sullivan Civilian Age 23 [Killed]
Passenger : Group Captain Philip Stuart Jackson-Taylor RAF 2192 [Killed]
The 511 Squadron Operations Record Book recounts the final chapter of Warrant Officer William Wright’s war service:
Feb 1 [1945]
York MW116 ditched off the island of Lampadusa [sic] in position 35 30 N, 12 35 E at 17:15Z [sic]. Wireless message received at 18:40Z [sic] reporting shortage of petrol.
Captain F/Lt A Eaton-Clarke injured, 2nd pilot F/O AVJ Vernieux injured, Navigator F/Lt JW Holdaway injured, W/Air W/O W Wright killed, F/Eng F/Sgt ACJ Walker Killed, Steward Cpl HJ Burge injured, Gunner F/O A Appleby killed. Fourteen passengers missing believed killed. Passengers were members of Prime Minister's staff for "Big Three" conference. (Source: 511 Squadron Operations Record Book February 1945 Form 540 & Form 541 (TNA AIR 27/1970)
According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Cumming’s summary account, LAC J Chicken of 511 Squadron also lost his life. The loss of the Avro York and so many of its crew and passengers was the subject of debate and questions in Parliament and of reporting in the Press. A contemporary issue of "Flight International" had this to say:
The Yalta Air Disaster
A full and frank explanation of the loss of the York aircraft carrying Government officials to the Yalta conference was given by the Air Minister, Sir Archibald Sinclair, in Parliament last week.
He said that the party was to have been taken in a Liberator, but one of its engines developed a fault just before the time to take off, and as the trouble could not quickly be remedied they changed over to the York, which was the only other long range aircraft immediately available. The York's crew, though experienced individually, had never previously flown together, but the occasion was urgent and the weather forecast good.
Near Naples the weather broke and the pilot decided to go on to Malta, but owing to radio distortion there was an error in navigation and they arrived over Lampedusa. After circling for an hour in darkness the pilot obtained a correct bearing, but then had insufficient fuel to reach Malta, 85 miles away, and the aircraft was brought down on the sea. Soon after alighting it broke up. (Source: Flight International, 3 May 1945)
Of the Foreign Office, civilian and Service personnel passengers, 11 did not survive. All are commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Stars and Stripes of 09 Feb 1945 states that one of the survivors was Air Cdre Alfred Clifford SANDERSON. It states, "Air Commodore Alfred Clifford Sanderson, Director of administrative planning at the Air Ministry and former senior air staff officer at Mediterranean Headquarters, was seriously injured in the plane crash which killed twelve members of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s staff on the way to the "Big-Three” conference it was disclosed today. Other survivors, four crew members, were injured. Among the dead were six members of the British Foreign Office staff, four British Army officers, a group commander and an enlisted man. Three members of the crew are missing. Names of the casualties, other than Sanderson, were not revealed. The plane in which members of Churchill s staff perished, according to Reuter’s, was a York, civil adaption of the big Lancaster bomber. Details of how, where and when the plane crashed were not disclosed."
Sources:
http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/remembering-today-1-february-1945-avro-york-mw116.36813/
Rob Davis Bomber Command Losses Database
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 27-Sep-2008 01:00 | ASN archive | Added |
| 26-May-2010 11:20 | TB | Updated [Date, Aircraft type, Registration, Operator, Total fatalities, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Nature, Destination airport, Narrative] |
| 28-May-2010 01:13 | TB | Updated [Source, Narrative] |
| 11-Nov-2016 13:54 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Time, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 11-Nov-2016 13:57 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Total occupants] |
| 12-Feb-2017 15:56 | TB | Updated [Operator, Total occupants, Location, Source] |
| 24-Oct-2020 14:34 | Steve Brew | Updated [Source] |
| 24-Oct-2020 14:34 | Steve Brew | Updated [Narrative] |
| 01-Feb-2024 08:21 | Rob Davis | Updated [Source, Narrative] |
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