ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 289985
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| Date: | Monday 12 October 1942 |
| Time: | |
| Type: | Miles Master MkI |
| Owner/operator: | 8 AACU |
| Registration: | N7479 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Location: | Painscastle, Powys -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Pengam Moor |
| Unknown |
Details:
The Anti-Aircraft Co-Operation Unit’s role was to provide target towing and to carry out attack simulations in order to provide continuation training for AA units. 8 AACU from its conception stayed at RAF Pengam Moors since its formation at RAF Ringway near Bristol. It operated a wide range of aircraft and as with all other RAF squadrons and units, the Miles Master was used as a administration and hack.
As part of Sgt (Kapral) Wisniewski post pilot training, he was attached to No.8 AACU to gain experience. On this date 80 years ago, he took off in Master N7479 to fly to North Wales ‘on a business trip?’ During his pre-flight briefing he was instructed in dealing with and ‘actions on’ encountering bad weather.
During the flight, at about and hour, he did encounter bad weather and thick cloud at approximately 7-800 feet, soon after flying over Painscastle, 15 miles northwest of Hay on Wye. Still in cloud he didn’t observe standing orders, two minutes later N7479 struck the rising ground of Dolau hill and burst into flames killing the Polish pilot.
The Incident Report quotes.
“The pilot was inexperienced in dealing with the weather and cloud over Wales, it would appear the orders had been ‘lost in translation’, to return to base if encountering bad weather. This he failed to do at his cost.”
8 AACU was merged on the 1st of December with No.6 & 7 AACU’s to form No.577 squadron Royal Artillery at RAF Castle Bromwich.
Crew:
Sgt (Kapral) Wladyslaw Wisniewski 22yo P/782809 PAF. Pilot. Killed.
Buried:
Cardiff Western Cemetery. War Graves Plot Section C. Grave 59.
Wreckage:
Unknown.
Additional Information:
Cardiff West Cemetery is the resting place of 128 Army, Navy, and RAF. A further 37, whose graves for various reasons could not be kept in other cemeteries near the capital of Wales, are commemorated on special monuments. Most of the graves are located at various points throughout the cemetery. The plot set aside for the Commonwealth war graves is located in quarter ‘C’ and consists of 32 graves. This is where the only Polish Aviator, Kapral Wisniewski, is buried in the cemetery.
RAF Pengam Moors.
The site had been associated with flying since as early as 1905 when Ernest Willows built his first airship at Pengam. His third airship Willows No. 3 - City of Cardiff flew from Cardiff to London on the 6th of August 1910. The flight established Willows as the first person to fly across the Bristol Channel and was the longest flight achieved in Britain at the time. He immediately followed this with a flight from London to Paris establishing the first airship flight across the English Channel at night.
The site was surveyed by War Department engineers and in August 1936 a decision to build a RauxAF station at Pengam Moors was made. Additional land was requisitioned to extend the length of the existing runway and provide space for a technical site. The buildings works were completed in 1938, with the provision of several brick-built offices, hangars and with most accommodation housed in temporary Nissen and Quonset hutting. The headquarters site was in the north-west corner of the station and the technical site in the south-west corner located on the requisitioned former vegetable allotments. In January 1946 RAF Pengam Moors was closed as a military establishment. The facility was handed back to Cardiff City Council and civilian flying recommenced from the airfield with the principal operator being Cambrian Airways, although it never regained the number of routes that had existed pre-war, as passenger aircraft were now larger and the short runway inadequate.
The airfield became redundant when all civilian flying was transferred on 1 April 1954 to the expanding facility at the new Rhoose Airport that was being developed on the site of the former RAF Rhoose. The longer runways at Rhoose were more suitable for jet passenger aircraft and its remote location meant less noise problems over built up city areas. Although there are almost no signs remaining of its former use, a few of the original buildings and road layouts remain. Residential streets on the site bear names that hint at its history - including Runway Road, De Havilland Road, Handley Road and Avro Close.
Sources:
www.rafcommands.com.uk
www.cwgc.org.uk
www.polishsquadronremembered.com.pl
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 06-Oct-2022 06:33 | Davies 62 | Added |
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