Plans unveiled for monument honouring tragic crew of RAF bomber that plunged into sea off Co Antrim
Plans have been submitted for a monument to the crew of an ill-fated RAF warplane in a tiny north Antrim village.
The blueprints for a plinth and inscribed memorial stones in Portballintrae have been lodged with Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council.
It honours six crewmen onboard the aircraft which crashed into the sea off the coast of the village on November 28, 1943, while on a training mission.
All of the men died.
The applicant, the Bushmills Through the Wars Committee, says it is a polished granite plinth and engraved tablets, located immediately adjacent to the public pedestrian route linking Salmon Rock Beach car park, Three Quarter Bridge, and Runkerry Beach.
According to the Facebook page of the history group The Second World War in Northern Ireland, the aircraft – a Vickers Wellington long range bomber with the number DV664 – “took off on a non-operational daytime bombing practice, and crashed at 12.20 hours 100 yards north-east of the Strand, Portballintrae”.
It adds that an eyewitness “reported that the aircraft bombed the target on a low level bombing drop, and then turned to starboard at a height of approximately 200 feet”.
"On completing the turn, the aircraft dived directly into the sea after the aircraft had straightened up,” it added.
"The accident occurred during daylight with strong winds and heavy seas.”
The website Wartime NI lists the dead as:
Flying Officer Phil Waite, pilot;
Sgt Geoffrey Albert Bennet, second pilot;
Flying Officer John Burton Knight, navigator;
And the following three wireless operators / air gunners:
Sgt Cyril Albert Stout;
Flight Sgt James Wilfred Marshall;
And Flight Sgt Leslie Woods.
The latter two were members of the Royal Australian Air Force, while the others were serving with the RAF.
The website adds: “With high winds and stormy seas, little evidence remained to show what caused the crash.
"The thinking at the time was that the pilot stalled the Vickers Wellington DV664 in completing the manoeuvre.
"None of the crew survived and, because of the conditions at sea, several crew members have no known graves.
"The bodies of Flight Sgt Woods and Sgt Stout washed ashore.”
Flight Sgt Stout is buried in Chingford, north London, while Flight Sgt Woods is buried at Chirst Church in Limavady, part of the Anglican Drumachose Parish.
The planning application follows a meeting of council’s Leisure and Development Committee in February, where members endorsed its submission.
It is understood the memorial will rest on top of an existing slab of concrete which previously supported a submarine indicator loop substation – part of a system of cables designed to detect the magnetic signatures of submarines near harbours.
The land is owned by the council.