Discovery of the site of the crash of ANSON # 7056
71 years ago a plane crashed on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
It has just been found.
On October 23rd 2013, Walter Van Hell, Dennis Cronin & Tom Weston, all Forestry Engineers, were performing a forestry Reconnaissance, and surveying land in the area northwest of Port Renfrew (Vancouver Island,) when one of them - Dennis Cronin - came across the wreckage of an aircraft. Walter, and the rest of the team checked the area around the parts of aircraft that they had found, and quite a lot more yellow & blue/green pieces were seen sticking up from the forest debris etc., and they found what appeared to be the cabin/cockpit alongside an engine with the propeller bent backwards.
There were various bits of flying equipment of a personal type, such as a flying boot, and some shoes, scattered around, and what appeared to be the sleeve of a leather flying jacket.. A little way further down the slope they found the second engine and some parts of the wings and tailplane assembly. They also found the tail part of what appeared to be a bomb, so they contacted the RCMP, who, in turn contacted the Military at Naden, and then together with an expert from the Unexploded Ordnance Centre, the RCMP Constable went to the crash site looking for any signs of Human remains, and unexploded Ordnance. There were no visible signs of any human remains, which is to be expected after some seventy years of exposure to the weather and wildlife in the area.
Walter, Dennis, Tom & Mike Pegg, did some research on the internet after looking at some of the pieces of wreckage, and decided that the aircraft was most likely an Avro Anson – a twin engined aircraft, painted yellow, used extensively for training purposes during WW2. It had originally been used by RAF Coastal Command for patrolling the sea areas around the coasts of the UK
The speaker was thanked by Jag Dhillon.