6 Group Unavailable
116 Bomber Reconnaissance Squadron RCAF, Gander, Newfoundland. Canso A aircraft 9781 M lost on a routine patrol off Newfoundland, Canada. The aircraft became lost and getting low on fuel set down in open water with the entire crew believed to have survived. There were ice floes and rough water and weather conditions that continued to deteriorate. Multiple aircraft, additional 116 Squadron RCAF Canso A aircraft and 10 Squadron RCAF Liberators aircraft were sent out to search for the missing aircraft and crew. The downed Canso and crew was located by a 10 Squadron B-24 Liberator (possibly 591 K, EX #BZ 727) crew was seen to abandon their aircraft for dinghies before the Canso sank. Another 116 Squadron Canso (possibly 9798 K) with a hand-picked crew was denied permission to land and attempt to pick up survivors due to the worsening sea conditions which also hampered further search efforts. Sadly, over the next few days the search for survivors proved fruitless, the entire was crew lost at sea
Flying Officer William Eugene McNicholl (RCAF), Warrant Officer 2 Perry Raymond Starr (RCAF), Warrant Officer 1 John Gordon Boothe (RCAF), Warrant Officer 2 Edwin Stanley Moon (RCAF), Sergeant Roy Kitchener Forth (RCAF), Sergeant Patrick Ernest Sloan (RCAF), Flight Sergeant John Albert William Skilleter (RCAF) and Sergeant William Herbert Gillatt (RCAF) were all missing, presumed killed in action
The missing have no known grave and all are commemorated on the Ottawa Memorial
Quietus Last Flight, Accident Proneness in WWII, Wartime Aviation Stories on the Canadian Home Front by Anne Gafiuk, Chapter 2
RCAF Squadrons and Aircraft by Samuel Kostinuk and John Griffin, pages 31,49
The Liberator in Royal Air Force and Commonwealth Service by James Oughton, John Hamlin and Andrew Thomas
Royal Air Force Serial and Image Database
Crash of Consolidated Canso off Goose Bay: 8 killed I Bureau of Aircra...
