The Legend of Llandwrog
Avro Anson Mk.I N5371/AK of No.9 (Observer) A.F.U.

An impressive wall mural and diorama display greets visitors to Caernarfon Airport’s Airworld Museum. On the morning of 23rd August 1943, the crew of Avro Anson Mk.I N5371/AK of No.9 (Observer) Advanced Flying Unit were to conduct a daytime navigational sortie from RAF Llandwrog to Shawbury, across the mountains of Snowdonia. The outward flight proved to be uneventful, however, during the return journey, the aircraft entered unexpected heavy cloud above high ground at around 10.30 in the morning. Through the mist, the pilot saw a sheep through the window which looked far too big for his liking - he instinctively pulled back on the flight controls in an attempt to gain altitude, but it was too late. Due to the aircraft’s close proximity to the ground, all the pull up action did was increase the Anson’s angle of attack, bringing it relatively gently to rest on the incline of a mountainside, but effectively avoiding what could have been a devastating nose first crash. Flopping onto the incline of the hillside, one wing struck a large boulder, which spun the aircraft round to face down the incline of the hill, almost ripping the wing clean off in the process, but apart from that, the Anson was down and relatively intact. As far as the crew were concerned, even though they were extremely shaken up and suffering from shock, all but the radio operator had escaped injury, with his wounds not being considered life threatening. With the crash being much less catastrophic than it could have been, the fuselage of the Anson was relatively complete and once they had gathered their senses, the crew were able to operate the radio and raise the alarm, or at least until the batteries died. With a basic crash site location obtained, the RAF Llandwrog base mountain rescue team left the airfield at 11am, but for a number of reasons, would have difficulty reaching the scene for several hours, particularly as the Anson’s radio had stopped working by then.

Eventually, after quite some time searching this unforgiving terrain, the rescue team spotted a bright yellow life-raft high on Foel Fras in the Carneddau Range and could just about make out the outline of an aircraft fuselage. Finally reaching the crash site at 15.00, they immediately effected the evacuation of the casualties back to Llandwrog airfield, where they could all receive medical attention and debrief their ordeal.