Date & Time: Dec 19, 1943
Type of aircraft:
Short S.25 Sunderland
Operator:
Registration:
DW106
Flight Phase:
Flight
Flight Type:
Military
Survivors:
No
Site:
Lake, Sea, Ocean, River
Schedule:
Pembroke Dock – Gibraltar
Location:
Atlantic Ocean
All World
Country:
World
Region:
World
Crew on board:
19
Crew fatalities:
19
Pax on board:
0
Pax fatalities:
0
Other fatalities:
0
Total fatalities:
19
Circumstances:
The seaplane left RAF Pembroke Dock at 2345LT on December 18 on a routine flight to Gibraltar with 19 crew members on board (two complete crews and reinforcements to the squadron as passengers). While cruising by night some 30 miles off the Saint-Vincent Cape located on the southwest coast of Portugal, the crew was able to send a distress IFF signal that was received by the crew of a second Short Sunderland which was following DW106. Despite intense SAR operations, no trace of the aircraft nor the crew was found.
Crew (270th Squadron):
F/O Vernon Maurice Sparkes,
F/Sgt Charles Albert Mark Barber,
F/Lt John Eric Wood,
F/Sgt Frederic Raymond Brown,
F/O Edward James Jay,
F/Sgt Francis Mcphee,
F/O Reginald Robert Terance Crump,
F/Sgt Eric Piggott Botting,
P/O Neil Procter Chapman,
F/O Norman Edmond Hanna,
Sgt Stanley Kidd,
F/O Raymond John Elderfield,
Sgt William Henry Cryer,
Sgt William Peter Houston,
Sgt Henry Leonard Thompson,
Sgt Maurice Robert Hunt,
Sgt Edmund Albert Hooker,
Sgt Samuel Hughes,
F/Sgt Leslie Robinson.
Source:
http://www.landinportugal.org/air_pages/a01_copy(133).htm