Crash of a Vickers 440 Wellington X on Mt Mynydd Moel: 6 killed

The crew of Wellington HX433 were carrying out a fuel consumption test flight from RAF Harwell near Didcot prior to the aircraft being ferried to the Middle East. The weather during the 28th May 1942 was reasonably good, but there was between 4 & 7/8th cloud over the high ground of Wales. At some point in the flight the aircraft had entered cloud and flown off course, the Court of Inquiry stated by at least 20 degrees. While still in cloud the Wellington flew into the shear rock wall on the North East face of 2830 ft high Mynydd Moel above Dolgellau a short way below the summit and completely disintegrated. Wreckage cascaded back down the mountain, landing on the steep and unstable scree slope below the cliff where some of it burned. At 21:15 a message was received by the Senior Medical Officer at RAF Towyn informing him that an aircraft had crashed in the mountains to the south of Dolegllau, he set out in the ambulance with a single orderly to the nearest road access. When they arrived they were told by the local Police that they had already discovered 4 bodies but that recovery during the night would be impossible due to the location of the wreckage. During the night enquiries were made to determine which aircraft had failed to return and how many crew there were. The following morning a larger team made up of the Medical Officer, 2 Orderlies a Sergeant and 8 Airmen together with the local Police and farmers made their way up to the wreckage and with “great difficulty” recovered the 6 bodies from the scree slope, which the RAF MO described as a “very steep slope, covered with large boulders”.
Crew:
F/Sgt William John Peter Grant, pilot,
F/Sgt Henry Lawrence Davis, pilot,
Sgt George Douglas Graham, observer,
Sgt John Ingram McDowell, wireless operator,
Sgt Clifford James Thomas, wireless operator,
Sgt Herbert Noel Williams, air gunner.
Source: https://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/crash_sites/wales/vickers-wellington-hx433-mynydd-moel/