British 1943 investigation A British Court of Inquiry convened on 7 July 1943 to investigate the crash, following the order by Air Marshal
Sir John Slessor of 5 July 1943. The possibility that Sikorski had been shot, strangled, or stabbed was dismissed.
Attempts of air crash explanations In 2012, Jerzy Zięborak revisited the evidence gathered by the Court of Inquiry in 1943 as well as other material that has been made available to date. His conclusion was that the accident resulted from the combination of factors. Firstly, the aircraft was overloaded and its centre of gravity was displaced beyond the permissible limit. Secondly, the aircraft speed at take-off was too low due to the excessive weight. Finally, the autopilot was switched on just after the take-off – contrary to the flight manual – and that caused an effect similar to the controls' jamming as seen by the
second pilot. Evidence has been found that the surviving pilot
Eduard Prchal did perform the second pilot's duties during the
take-off, which he did not reveal at the time of the investigation. Zięborak rejects General
Nöel Mason-MacFarlane's opinion that Prchal's
mental state during the take-off was the reason for the accident. He then compares Prchal's article written ten years after the accident with the relevant documents from the accident. Not only did Prchal write an untrue description of the accident, but he omitted some details he had earlier mentioned during his meetings with pilots. The differences included details of his injuries mentioned in the article and those reported in the medical examination after the accident. The author considered whether it was possible that Prchal had completely forgotten such details of the accident as for example the number of victims. The reason for these differences, i.e. whether Prchal lied deliberately in his article or suffered from a type of
partial amnesia as a result of his injury is not discussed. However, Zięborak thinks that Prchal lied on purpose about the
Mae West lifejacket. Despite the deficiencies of the report, the results of the Court's investigations were finally accepted. The author concluded that this was a convenient solution for both the British and Polish government, as the details of
VIPs' flight procedure could not be published in the Court's report during the war. In 2016, the pilot Mieczysław Jan Różycki also undertook the analysis of the Gibraltar crash and accompanying circumstances. He agreed that the aircraft was overloaded and its take-off weight significantly exceeded the limit set by the manufacturer and RAF Transport Command. Violation of weight regulations was, however, tolerated due to wartime transportation difficulties, and pilots were encouraged to take responsibility for flights with overloaded aircraft. Moreover, minor smuggling of scarce goods by flying personnel was widespread and the baggage of important passengers was not checked nor weighed at all. Therefore, pilots had to estimate the weight of the aircraft. The investigation assumed, based on an RAF form, that the weight of the load, including passengers, was 5324 lbs, which led to their conclusion about the take-off weight. According to M. Różycki, however, there are strong indications that the form containing that weight was fabricated by the commission to show that the aircraft was not excessively overloaded. According to this author, based on estimates and comparative data, the actual take-off weight of the aircraft was about 63,000 pounds, and it would have needed over 1600 yards to take-off, while the airstrip in Gibraltar at the time was only 1530 yards long. Only in August 1943 was the new 1800-yard airstrip completed. Moreover, the main problem at this airport was bad weather conditions due to the mountainous environment, sea influences and winds, and accidents often occurred, including two involving other Liberators in 1942 and 1943. Eduard Prchal himself was an average pilot, and in particular he was not an experienced pilot of heavy transport machines. He was a fighter pilot first and began training on the Liberator only on 22 December 1942. At the time of the accident, he had 292 hours and 10 minutes of flight time with this aircraft type. Co-pilot Stanley Herring, although an experienced bomber pilot, had no experience in solo piloting the Liberator. Liberator aircraft were difficult to fly and did not tolerate errors, which resulted in a high accident rate during training. In addition, aircraft of the first two Liberator production series AL and AM had individual quirks in flight. Prchal and Herring did not know their aircraft AL523 well, and had previously made only one daytime take-off and flight on it. Prchal himself was not Sikorski's personal pilot. Sikorski had flown with him for the first time from England to Cairo, and expressed a wish that Prchal would pilot his aircraft on the way back as well. As a result, Prchal was assigned to Liberator AL523, scheduled for the return trip. Sikorski planned to use his trust in the Czechoslovak pilot for propaganda, to improve harsh
relations between the Polish and Czechoslovak governments in exile. After taking off too early, the aircraft started to lose height, and Prchal may have had an impression of jammed elevators due to a gust of wind. The aircraft then came to a
stall and crashed within twelve seconds of take-off. In conclusion, the accident, according to Różycki, was a simple disaster caused by taking off in unfavorable weather, from a too-short airstrip, and with an overloaded aircraft - with the Liberator's flight characteristics, the increased difficulty of night take-off, limited pilot experience and lack of knowledge of this particular aircraft's characteristics as contributing factors. According to Różycki, a primary goal of the British Court of Inquiry was to investigate the possibility of sabotage in Gibraltar, which was of vital importance to other allied commanders and politicians. This issue was investigated most thoroughly and the sabotage was ruled out. Afterwards, determination of the accident's real cause was regarded as less important. In the opinion of Różycki, the final conclusion (that the accident was caused by the jamming of elevator controls of unknown cause) was deliberate understatement, chosen to avoid straining Polish relations with Czechoslovakia by blaming the pilot - and to avoid revealing negligence in transport pilot training and procedures, for which the RAF was responsible. Biuletyn informacyjny sikorski.jpg|
Biuletyn Informacyjny from 15 July 1943 News of the death of General Władysław Sikorski and the order for a national day of
mourning. Kamien pamiatkowy na Powazkach Wojskowych.JPG|A memorial stone for the 50th anniversary of the 1943 Gibraltar air crash at the
Powązki Military Cemetery. Memorial of General Wladyslaw in Gibraltar.jpg|Memorial plaque dedicated to Sikorski located at the end of the
Great Siege Tunnels in Gibraltar Memorial to General Wladislaw Sikorski, Europa Point.jpg|General Sikorski Memorial at
Europa Point in
Gibraltar ==See also==