Jack BRACEWELL

Corporal 4111461 Jack BRACEWELL. Royal Air Force died 18th February 1956 aged 21. Son of Charlie and Amy nee HILL. Born 29 August 1931 in Bradford. Son of Charlie and Amy nee Hill. He was the brother of Annie born 1918, born at Bradford and Ronald H, born 1920 at Rochdale He was stationed at RAF Suez.
At rest in Plot 3 Row 3 Grave 18 Imtarfa Military Cemetery, Malta

Malta’s worst air tragedy occurred during the afternoon of Saturday the 18th February 1956. The plane, a four engine Avro York aircraft, G-ANSY, belonging to Scottish Airlines, crashed near Zurrieq. It had been chartered by the Royal Air Force and was being used to carry troops from Suez, in Egypt, to the U.K., with a stop-over in Malta. As the aircraft took off, the air traffic controllers at Luqa airport, saw smoke coming from one of the engines, and informed the pilot, Captain Frank Coker, immediately. The plane appeared to climb to around 1,000 feet before going into a dive and crashing into the ground. Since it was loaded with around 2,000 gallons of high octane aviation fuel, the plane exploded on impact and was engulfed by flames. The men on board numbered a crew of five, with 45 passengers, all RAF personnel except one Army private. When the rescue services of the Royal Air Force and civil police arrived at the scene, it was clear that there were no survivors. The funeral was held later that week at Imtarfa military cemetery. The RAF men are commemorated on tablets
I made contact with a lady called Christine, through Ancestry, who informed me that her brother Brian Gardiner was in the R A F with Jack in Suez in 1956 and knew him quite well and was in the music society with him there. Her brother has a book with Jack's signature and comments about the music and it was signed a week or so before Jack left to go back to England and was sadly killed. Her brother left a month or two later in the last flight from Suez. A poppy Cross memorial, with a message from Brian, was placed on his behalf on Jack's grave in Plot 3 Row 3 Grave 18 Imtarfa Military Cemetery, Malta on 28th September 2016. This grave contains three other Royal Air Force personnel who died on the same day as Jack. The message on the poppy cross reads -
Always remembered with pleasure, from Brian Gardiner, a colleague, who remembers you well from the music society in Egypt.