1943 Gibraltar B - 24 crash The 1943 Gibraltar B - 24 crash resulted in the death of estimated sixteen people , including general Władysław Sikorski . Sikorski was the commander - in - chief of the Polish Army , in addition to being the Prime Minister of the Polish government - in - exile at the time . Sikorski ' s Liberator II crashed in Gibraltar almost immediately after take off , with the plane ' s pilot being the only survivor . While this catastrophe was ruled as an accident , several conspiracy theories continue to persist . Background . The relationship between the Soviet Union and Poland was tenuous at best during the closing stages of World War II for a variety of reasons , and became more so , after the 1940 Katyn massacre of over 20 , 000 Polish servicemen by the Russians came to light . However , being pragmatic , general Władysław Sikorski was still open to some form of normalisation of Polish - Soviet relations , while general Władysław Anders was vehemently opposed . To boost morale , Sikorski began a tour of inspection of the Polish forces stationed in the Middle East in May 1943 , tending to political affairs where necessary . Accident . On 4 July 1943 , while Sikorski was returning to London from an inspection of Polish forces deployed in the Middle East , his aircraft , a Royal Air Force Consolidated B - 24 Liberator , serial number " AL523 " , operated by No . 511 Squadron RAF , crashed into the sea 16 seconds after taking off from Gibraltar Airport at 23 : 07 hours . The Liberator II was an LB - 30 model built as an unarmed transport and operated by No . 511 Squadron of RAF Transport Command on long range flights between the UK and Gibraltar . In 1972 the pilot Flight Lieutenant Eduard Prchal described the events " I received the green light from the tower and we began our take - off run . I pulled the stick back and the aircraft started to climb . When I was at 150ft I pushed the controls of the aircraft forward to gain speed . Suddenly I discovered I was not able to pull the stick back . The steering mechanism was jammed or locked . " The aircraft then lost height rapidly . Prchal closed the four throttles and warned the others through the intercom " Attention , crash " . The aircraft crashed into the sea . Sikorski , his daughter , Tadeusz Klimecki ( his Chief of Staff ) , and eight other passengers were killed . While 11 was the official count of those who perished , the exact number of passengers was not known . Of the six crew members on board , only Prchal survived . Passengers and crew . The only survivor of the accident was the pilot Flight Lieutenant Eduard Prchal , one of six crew on the aircraft . The 11 passengers killed were : Aftermath . Sikorski ' s body was collected by the Polish Navy destroyer and transported to Britain . He was subsequently buried in a brick - lined grave at the Polish War Cemetery in Newark - on - Trent , England , on 16 July that year . Winston Churchill delivered a eulogy at his funeral . The bodies of Sikorski ' s daughter and four other passengers and crew were not found . Sikorski ' s death marked a turning point for Polish influence amongst the Anglo - American allies . He had been the most prestigious leader of the Polish exiles and it was a severe setback for the Polish cause , for no Pole after him would have much sway with the Allied politicians . Incident investigation and controversy . 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 5 , 1943 . On 25 July 1943 the Court concluded that the accident was caused by the " jamming of elevator controls " which led to the aircraft being uncontrollable after take - off . The report noted that " it has not been possible to determine how the jamming occurred " although it ruled out sabotage . Slessor was not satisfied with the report and on July 28 ordered the Court to continue its investigation to find out , first of all , whether the controls were indeed jammed or not , and if they were , then for what reason . Despite further investigation the Court was unable to resolve Slessor ' s doubts . The Polish government refused to endorse this report because of the contradictions cited therein , and the lack of conclusive findings . The political context of the event , coupled with a variety of curious circumstances , immediately gave rise to speculation that Sikorski ' s death had not been an accident , and might have been the direct result of a Soviet , British , or even Polish conspiracy . Some modern sources still note that the accident was not fully explained ; for example Jerzy Jan Lerski in his " Historical Dictionary of Poland " ( 1996 ) , entry on the " Gibraltar , Catastrophe of " , noted that " there are several theories explaining the event , but the mystery was never fully solved . " However , as Roman Wapiński noted in his biographical entry on Sikorski in the Polish Biographical Dictionary in 1997 , no conclusive evidence of any wrongdoing had been found , and Sikorski ' s official cause of death was listed as an accident . In 2008 Sikorski was exhumed and his remains were examined by Polish scientists , who in 2009 concluded that he died of injuries consistent with an air crash , and that there was no evidence that Sikorski was murdered , thus , ruling out theories that he was shot or strangled before the incident . However they did not rule out the possibility of sabotage , which is still being investigated by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance . The investigation is ongoing as of 2012 . In 2012 , Jerzy Zięborak revised 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 . The evidence has been found that the surviving pilot Prchal did actually perform the second pilot ' s duties during the take - off ; which he could not remember at the time of the investigation due to the shock he suffered during the crash .