ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 30723
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| Date: | Sunday 7 September 1941 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Avro Anson Mk I |
| Owner/operator: | 10 OTU RAF |
| Registration: | N9617 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 5 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Moel Sych, Berwyn Hills, Wales -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | RAF Abingdon, Oxfordshire |
On the morning of 7th September 1941, Frank Mitchell took off on a training flight out of RAF Abingdon in Avro Anson N9617. There were two wireless operators, Frank and Sgt. Raymond Keen, and two navigators, Sgt. Leslie Copland and P/O J.E. Taylor. The pilot was Thomas Weller, a native of Hendon, with more than 1,000 hours flying experience.
As the plane neared the Berwyn Hills in Wales, it entered dense cloud and mist. Copland warned the pilot he was too low, and Weller began a steep climb. It was too late. The plane crashed head-on into the sloping side of the Moel Sych, a 2,713-feet mountain, the highest peak in the Berwyns and the scourge of many other aircraft before and since.
The Anson‟s wings were ripped off as it crashed up the mountainside. P/O Weller was thrown against his control column and killed. The plane came to a rest: a mess of twisted wreckage, leaking fuel and the injured bodies of the four surviving airmen. Sgt. Copland was trapped by collapsed metal rods, with a broken thigh bone and a huge open wound on his broken forearm. He could not free himself from the wreckage.
Taylor was bleeding badly from a gashed head, Keen had cuts all over his body, and Frank Mitchell, who had been thrown against his wireless equipment, had bad injuries to his face, knee and legs.
All three were able to crawl out of the wreckage onto the misty mountainside. If rescue did not come before nightfall, they and Copland were bound to die, from either blood loss or exposure. It was Frank who volunteered to go for help.
Sources:
http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/295457/details/air-crash-site-avro-anson-n9617-moel-sych
http://rafabingdon10otu.co.uk/id3.html
http://www.fchsfriends.org.uk/resources/Francis-Mitchell.pdf
ihttps://powysenc.weebly.com/beadles---bevan.html
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 27-Sep-2008 01:00 | ASN archive | Added |
| 18-Mar-2012 08:23 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Source, Damage, Narrative] |
| 10-Nov-2012 17:59 | angels one five | Updated [Aircraft type, Source, Narrative] |
| 10-Nov-2012 18:05 | angels one five | Updated [Source, Narrative] |
| 10-Nov-2012 18:07 | angels one five | Updated [Source] |
| 12-Jan-2016 20:36 | JIXN | Updated [Operator, Nature] |
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