Canadian Press is reporting….
VANCOUVER – More than 70 years after a Second World War aircraft disappeared on a training flight over B.C., the wreckage has been found and four servicemen have been identified.
The BC Coroners Service says what was left of the Avro Anson was discovered last October by a logging crew working on a remote mountainside near Port Renfrew, B.C., on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
The site is barely 50 kilometres west of the Sidney airport, where the twin-engine propeller aircraft took off on Oct. 30, 1942.
Human remains were found at the scene, but bad weather prevented recovery of Royal Canadian Air Force Sgt. William Baird and British air force Pilot Officer Charles Fox, Pilot Officer Anthony Lawrence and Sgt. Robert Luckock.
Officials with the coroners service and Department of National Defence returned to the heavily-forested mountainside on May 5 and removed, analysed and identified the remains.
Canadian military officials and Britain’s Ministry of Defence have contacted surviving family members, and plans for an interment ceremony are under discussion.
Clearance Diver and Explosives Ordinance Disposal (EOD) technicians Master Seaman (MS) Kenneth Jones and Petty Officer 2nd class (PO2) Shawn Goodine use a chain saw and pick to remove a large downed tree at the site of the Avro Anson aircraft crash on May 6, 2014. (Department of National Defence / Cpl. Brandon O’Connell)
And here is the official release from the DND:
The remains of four airmen from the crash of a Second World War training aircraft in British Columbia have been recovered during a collaborative operation with the British Columbia Coroners Service.
The four airmen, one from the Royal Canadian Air Force, Sergeant William Baird, and three from the Royal Air Force, Pilot Officer Charles George Fox, Pilot Officer Anthony William Lawrence, and Sergeant Robert Ernest Luckock, were conducting a navigation training exercise aboard the Avro Anson L7056 aircraft in October 1942 when they failed to return from the mission.
DND and the CAF are working with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre in the U.K. to plan for an internment ceremony, in consultation with the airmen’s relatives, to provide the airmen with a final honoured and appropriate resting place in a Commonwealth War Graves plot.
Quick Facts
• The crew, all members of the Royal Canadian Air Force 32 Operational Training Unit, departed from Patricia Bay, British Columbia on October 30, 1942. The aircraft failed to return and was not discovered during the subsequent search operation. The four airmen on board were presumed to have died, and their names were listed on the Ottawa Memorial to the missing.
• More than 100 aircrew lost their lives while flying out of Patricia Bay during the Second World War.
• The wreckage of the Avro Anson was located on southern Vancouver Island in October 2013 by a logging company, Teal-Jones Cedar Products Ltd, working in the area, which immediately notified authorities.
• The DND and the CAF worked collaboratively with the British Columbia Coroners Office, which maintained jurisdiction over the crash site, to conduct a recovery operation from May 5 to 9, 2014. The primary focus of the operation was to recover any human remains and artefacts, as well as identify and remove potential physical and/or environmental hazards. Access to the crash site is currently restricted while the department completes environmental testing.
• The CAF and the British Columbia Coroners Office have now confirmed the recovery and identification of the four airmen.
