The 1948 Royal Air Force Avro Lancaster crash took place on 3 September 1948, operated by the Royal Air Force with an Avro Lancaster B Mk III GR. The aircraft crashed on the slopes of "Colle dei Lecci" on the island of Montecristo (at about 300 m, 980 ft altitude). The crash and subsequent fire resulted in the deaths of all seven occupants of the aircraft.[1][2]
Aircraft
The aircraft was an Avro Lancaster B Mk III GR, registration TX269, which entered service in September 1945 with RR Merlin 224 engines; its callsign was RL-N.[3] It belonged to the 38th RAF Squadron stationed at Malta's Luqa airport. The aircraft was completely destroyed in the incident.
Incident
A piston from the bomber (Museum of the island of Montecristo).
The aircraft was reported missing during a joint Anglo-American military exercise shortly after midnight on September 3, 1948, while flying from Luqa base (Malta) to Mawgan base (Cornwall, near Newquay).[1][2]
The crew of a sailing ship en route to Porto Santo Stefano observed the bomber flying at very low altitude[4] and crashing on the island of Montecristo. The sea was too rough, and the sailing ship, unable to approach Montecristo, continued towards its destination; an alert was raised from Porto Santo Stefano to the Port Authority of Livorno, which sent two corvettes to the island's waters. Due to the adverse sea conditions, these two ships could only depart at 16:00. Meanwhile, a major rescue operation took place: the American aircraft carrier Kearsarge, supported by seven destroyers and one of the two Italian corvettes sent from Livorno. A Supermarine Seafire launched from the British aircraft carrier Triumph spotted the wreckage of TX269 on the rocks of the upper Santa Maria Valley, on the southwestern side of Montecristo. Immediately, a search team was dispatched from the same aircraft carrier to the island, where they found the remains of TX269 and the seven occupants, whose bodies were recovered and subsequently, in the afternoon of September 5, buried with military honors in the waters of the island by HMS Triumph.
Among the crew were the pilot Arthur, co-pilot Kingsley, non-commissioned officer S.J. Herd, navigator Barthorpe, and gunner Dickens.[5]
Report
L'Unità of Sunday, September 5, 1948, reported:[4] "A sailing ship en route to Porto Santo Stefano spotted this morning (Sept. 4) a plane flying at very low altitude, crashing into the cliffs of the island of Montecristo and catching fire. Due to a violent hurricane, the sailing ship could not approach the coast and headed for Porto Santo Stefano, where it raised the alarm.
The Livorno Port Authority immediately dispatched two corvettes, but they could not depart until 4 PM due to the violent hurricane that prevented navigation. They arrived in Porto Santo Stefano only in the evening, from where they would depart in the early hours of tomorrow morning for the island of Montecristo. It appears the crashed plane is English."
Notes
^ ab"Accident Avro Lancaster B Mk III GR TX269, 03 Sep 1948". aviation-safety.net. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
^ ab"Disastro aereo sull'isola di Montecristo". Retrieved August 6, 2019.
^"Avro Lancaster - Heavy Bomber - The register". chairtopia.co.uk. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
^ abL'Unità, September 5, 1948.
^Ferruzzi, Silvestre (April 1, 2015). "1948. Il disastro aereo di Montecristo". elbareport.it. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
