Anson N9879 crashed in the Black Mountains

PublishedFebruary 19, 2026

Avro Anson
RAF Serial: N9879
No. 6 Air Observers Navigation School
Pilot: F/Lt. R. M. Noblson (killed)
Others aboard: Two trainees and their instructor (survived)
Date: 2nd March 1940
Place: Black Mountains near Llanthony

**Avro Anson, from Wingleader’s Archive**

In Wales, the clouds –alongside the rain– are stuffed with rocks. High ground, bad weather and rudimentary navigation aids were a recipe for disaster.

On 2nd March 1940, Anson N9879 was on a training flight from 6 Air Observers Navigation School, based at Staverton near Gloucester. Flying off course into thick cloud, the Anson struck the top of the Black Mountains near Llanthony, on the English/Welsh border.

**The crash site on the Black Mountains, looking towards the English border**

The slow cruising speed of an Anson meant crews often caught a glimpse of passing sheep and moorland through suddenly clearing clag before the inevitable impact, and then found themselves struggling, concussed, from the remains of their aircraft.

In this case, the pilot sadly died from his injuries, but two of the trainees and their instructor were able to walk away.

The RAF recovery crew chopped up the remains of the Anson and burned them on site. Being mostly tubing, wood and fabric, combined with the boggy landscape, it was simply not worth recovering.

**Photographed twenty years ago, there is likely much less visible now**

In 1978, Air Cadets from the local 2478 (Abergavenny) Squadron recovered one of the engines by rolling it onto a Morris Minor bonnet and dragging it like a sledge across the moorland. Along with two other Cheetah engines from a nearby 1946 Oxford crash, it was stripped for restoration. One complete engine was put on display in their museum, but the other two were left rather neglected and incomplete.

In the mid-1990s, the museum was disbanded and the engines put aside for the scrap man. An enterprising local enthusiast (your author’s aunt) rescued them before his arrival and placed them decoratively in her garden. The scrap man was not pleased.

**Rescued from the scrap man in the 90s, but in need of a little TLC! One Anson Cheetah IX, and one Oxford Cheetah X**

There they sat, emerging in winter and disappearing under foliage in summer, until their recent removal to the Chetton Heritage Museum. There they will go on display as a memorial to Flight Lieutenant R. M. Noblson, the Anson’s pilot, and to all the airmen lost in flying accidents over the UK.