Anson L7056 (2013)
Avro Anson Mk 1 L7056 went missing in 1942. In 2013, the plane and its crew were found. We identified all 4 airmen and gave them a military burial.
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Disappearance
The Avro Anson Mk 1 L7056 and its four crewmen went missing on 30 October 1942, while performing a routine navigation exercise from an operational training unit at Patricia Bay, British Columbia. As a front of bad weather began to move in, a recall was issued for all aircraft, but Anson L7056 failed to return.
Searches for the missing aircraft were initiated at noon on 30 October but were discontinued on 3 November after numerous search aircraft failed to locate any wreckage.
There were four crew members in the downed aircraft: the pilot, Sergeant Robert Ernest Luckock, two navigators, Pilot Officer Charles George Fox and Pilot Officer Anthony William Lawrence, and the wireless operator and air gunner, Sergeant William Baird. Of the four airmen, three were Royal Air Force and British citizens, and the fourth, William Baird, was a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force and a Canadian citizen.
Discovery
theOnce the Casualty Identification Program was notified, Canadian Armed Forces military and civilian experts travelled to the site on the 10-11 of December 2013. They included a forensic scientist from (DHH), a CAF Explosive Ordnance Disposal diver, and an CAF air crash expert.
On 10 December 2013, the remains of one of the airmen were discovered, and the British Columbia Coroner was contacted.
Recovery
From 5-9 May 2014, a team worked together to exhume the remains of the four airmen while remediating any hazards on the site. The team comprised of members from the Joint Task Force (Pacific), the Casualty Identification Program, the BC Coroner’s service, Fleet Diving Unit (Pacific), the Directorate for Nuclear Safety, and regionally based environmental officers, crash experts, and logisticians.
All four airmen were identified using forensic analysis by experts from National Defence and the BC Coroner’s service.
The families of the four airmen were notified of the recovery as soon as was possible. Many personal items retrieved at the crash site were returned to the families. All four airmen were interred at Royal Oak Burial Park, Victoria, BC, on 10 November 2014 in accordance with the agreement by all Commonwealth countries following the First and Second World War.
British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
Anson L7056 was a training aircraft used by 32 Operational Training Unit based in Patricia Bay, British Columbia. The Operational Training Unit was the final stage in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCAPT) following an airman’s initial training school and specialized training schools. The BCAPT trained nearly 137,000 aircrew for service in the Second World War, largely from Commonwealth countries.
The Avro Anson
The Avro Anson, named for an 18th century British admiral and nicknamed “faithful Annie” for its stability and reliability, was used as a commercial aircraft at its conception. The RAF recognized the aircraft’s maneuverability and durability, so it was adopted for military use in 1936. The Anson was used extensively for twin engine aircraft training in the BCATP, with over one million flying hours logged and 20,000 air crew trained.
Information about casualty identification
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