Up front: Going under an eye-opener for Cowichan submarine-rider page 3 On stage: Cowichan-raised actress enjoying the Afterparty page 13
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Friday, January 3, 2014
Plane wreckage could bring rare closure to four wartime families
Wreckage: from 1942 military training flight gone bad
Peter W. Rusland
News Leader Pictorial
O
ct. 30, 1942 was likely a bad day for flying, given the West Coast’s fickle fall weather. And those risks were amplified without a working radio inside a canvas-and-wood military Avro Anson being used for training flights above southern Vancouver Island. British RAF volunteerreserve pilots Anthony William Lawrence, 21, and Charles George Fox, 31, British RAF volunteer-reserve Sgt. Robert Ernest Luckock and Canadian RCAF Sgt. William Baird were on that plane when it left the Patricia Bay airport outside Victoria. Their fate has been unknown for 71 years. But now their families may finally have answers. In October, loggers working for Teal-Jones out of the Mesachie Lake area found wreckage tossed across 100 metres of heavy bush near Mesachie Lake, southwest of Lake Cowichan. Federal investigators believe that grim spot is where the plane went down. Laurel Clegg, Department of National Defence’s forensic anthropologist, visited the snowy site in December. She aims to return “weather pending” to sift metal, wood and fabric for human remains and the crew’s personal effects that could confirm it is, in fact, the answer to a mystery seven decades old. “We’re already notifying next of kin; we’re working with the British to notify them,” she said. Finding needles in that forested haystack won’t be easy.
But work by Clegg’s team — including bomb-disposal agents — will be easier as the remote location was undisturbed by artifact hunters, war buffs, and others who could have desecrated the site. “There’s wide dispersal of metal and wreckage, seats and fuselage. With 70 years, there’s lots of forest growth over things,” she said. “We want to protect the site; the whole area is logging.” The DND has a record of the Avro’s engine-plate serial numbers, which it has used to pinpoint the flight. “The serial numbers match our records,” Clegg said of the light aircraft used for navigational training during the Second World War. “We also have crash records of all airplane crashes in Canada.” Those accidents claimed some 26,000 Canucks still missing in action from the First and SecAndrew Leong ond world wars, plus the Korean Dawn Geddie of Bound to be Different, Sandra Beggs of Cycle Therapy, and Judy Stafford of Cowichan Green Community sort the proceeds of Operation: Unconflict. derpants just prior to Christmas. The charity drive for the homeless collected 830 pairs of underpants, 191 socks, 38 t-shirts (care of CGC), four toques, two With most West Coast pairs of gloves, $30 and one stuffed reindeer. mishaps, investigators assume the plane probably crashed in the ocean, meaning it is unlikely they will ever pinpoint the final resting place of the deceased. but it’s all about to be sorted out soon. Don Bodger That’s why Clegg called The athletes have all known about their News Leader Pictorial finding this land-based Avro a selection to the top 20 for about a month, rare viable case of investigators but the suspense is now building toward the ew Year’s countdowns lead finally being able to connect the reverse countdown from No. 20 to No. 1. right into the News Leader tragic dots. That takes place at Shawnigan Lake Pictorial’s Top 20 Valley “We’re meeting next week with School at a luncheon honouring the athletes. Youth Athlete of the Year crash investigators to figure out A jam-packed program is planned, highcountdown for 2013. what was going on,” she said. lighted by the naming of the successor to The top 20 athletes selected from valley “From crash records, we assume 2012 Co-athletes of the Year Maya Munzar high schools are profi led in a special section it was weather related — and and Maegan Kuruvita. in today’s paper. their radio was not functionAdam Kleeberger from the men’s national You can read their responses to six differing, so if they got into trouble, rugby team and Frances Kelsey grad and ent questions about their athletic aspirations they had no way of getting any 2007 Athlete of the Year co-winner Dannie and 2013 highlights. assistance.” Richards are the guest speakers. The profi les are placed in random order, more on A3
Finalists await annual News Leader athlete honour
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