Miles Master Mk.III W8479 flew into Arant Haw Fell near Sedburgh on the 19th December 1941

 

Antoni Henryk Gosiewski 2nd Officer, ATA Pilot Killed

 

Master W8479 was being ferried by the Air Transport Auxiliary from Woodley in Berkshire to RAF Lossiemouth via Shawbury and Kirkbride. The aircraft was collected on the 17th December at Woodley and flown to Shawbury where to following day poor weather prevented the onward flight to Kirkbride near Carlisle. On the 19th Second Officer Gosiewski left Shawbury and flew northwards towards the next planned refuelling point. On reaching to the point where the Pennines and Lake District meet he was to fly through the Lune valley to Tebay however he strayed slightly to east of the valley near Sedburgh and struck the summit of Arant Haw which at the time was obscurred by low cloud.

Crash site of Miles Master W8479, Arant Haw Fell, Sedburgh, Cumbria
Virtually nothing remains at the crash site of W8479 today. Very close to the summit of the hill is this scar which contains a few tiny fragments of glass and metal from the largely wooden aircraft.

It was a few days before the remains of the Master and the body of 2nd Off. Gosiewski were discovered on the hills to the north west of Sedburgh. After being recovered from Antoni Gosiewski was buried along with a large number of other ATA casualties at Maidenhead Cemetery in Berkshire.

Second Officer Gosiewski had previously served with the Polish Air Force before the outbreak of war and then with the RAF in the UK before joining the ATA in September 1941. He had a wife and two children who managed to leave Poland and were attempting to reach the UK but they were killed when a ship they were on board was sunk during 1941.