Site Record

A fire blackened scar is reported to be still visible on the cliff face (location uncertain and may not be in vicinity of NGR given).

Any remains of this aircraft are designated as a Controlled Site under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. The Act makes it an offence to interfere with the wreckage of any crashed, sunken or stranded military aircraft without a licence. For further information on this Act and its administration with regard to aircraft, please contact the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre, RAF Innsworth, Gloucester, GL3 1RZ.

Event and Historical Information:
The seaplane based established at Goodwick Sands during the first World War stood on a 3 acre site to the north of the railway station (Fishguard Harbour Station) and comprised a canvas and wood hanger, sheds and a slipway (see NPRN 516077). Sopwith Baby seaplanes were assigned to the base. On a test flight on 22 April 1917, this seaplane was being flown by Flight Lt Richard Elson Bush. It failed to gain enough height and caught on power cables linking to the wireless house. The plane crashed into the cliffs and caught fire. Private B Blackburn of the Kings Liverpool Regiment pulled Bush from the wreckage before the two 160lb bombs on board could explode. The fatality was reported in local newspapers - noting the Flight-Lieut Bush rolled and extinguished his burning clothes. He died in the early hours of the next morning.

Sources include:
The Cambrian Daily Leader, 25 April 1917, pg2 (Welsh Newspapers Online https://newspapers.library.wales/view/4110429/4110433/110)
Dyfed Archaeological Trust HER ref: 105325
Evans, J, 2005, Final Flights: Aviation Accidents in West Wales from the Great War to the 1990s, pgs4-5
Hale, M, 2007, Fishguard's Great War Planes
Pyper, A, 2013, Military Aircraft Crash Sites in South West Wales, Dyfed Archaeological Trust Report
South Wales Weekly Post, 28 April 1917, pg4 (Welsh Newspapers Online, https://newspapers.library.wales/view/4103387/4103389/29)

Maritime Officer, RCAHMW, June 2019.