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Capt Jack Wixen

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Capt Jack Wixen

Birth
Russia
Death
10 Aug 1941 (aged 27)
Isle of Arran, North Ayrshire, Scotland
Burial
Isle of Arran, North Ayrshire, Scotland GPS-Latitude: 55.544682, Longitude: -5.120192
Plot
Plot 7. Coll. grave 398-413.
Memorial ID
View Source
A casualty of World War II, Jack's name was changed to Jack Wixen. It was formerly Jacob Vichnenko.
The photo to the left has his name incorrectly attributed as James Wixen. It was Jack, not James.
~~~
Jack served with the Royal Air Force Ferry Command. The crash happened on August 10, 1941 and World War II didn't officially start until December 7, 1941, although war was raging in different countries. It just hadn't been declared by America yet.

Jack was 27 and the son of Aron and Tanya Wixen [otherwise Wixchncnkov] of Los Angeles,California, U.S.A. His parents had fled from Russia to Palestine and then the United States where they ultimately settled in Riverside, Ca. for a number of years before moving to Los Angeles.

Jack Wixen was born in Batum, Georgia, Russia in September 1913 but moved to Palestine as a child and then moved to Newark, New Jersey, USA in 1923. He had served as a pilot and instructor for the Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA) and American Airlines prior to joining the RAF as a ferry pilot some four months before his death. He had a brother Balfour Wixen who served in the US Army during WW2.
_____
The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec, Quebec, Canada) 13 Aug. 1941, Wed Page 6
Capt. J. Wixen
Capt. J. Wixen, who occupied the apartment next to Capt. King, came here last year from Los Angeles, California, and formerly flew commercially with Transcontinental and Western Air Lines.
**end of article**

Consolidated Liberator (LB-30A) AM261 of the Atlantic Return Ferry Organisation, flew into Mullach Buidhe north of Goat Fell on the Isle of Arran on 10th August 1941

The aircraft had take off from Heathfield (Ayr) to fly to Gander in eastern Canada with ferry crews on board with the intention of those crews ferrying new aircraft back across the Atlantic. Shortly after take off the aircraft entered cloud and flew into Mullach Buidhe near the head of Coire Lan. The flight crews onboard were from Royal Air Force Ferry Command, Air Transport Auxiliary and British Overseas Airways Corporation. All 22 of the crew and passengers perished in the crash making it the worst crash on Arran. This aircraft had been used less than two weeks earlier to fly the Duke of Kent across the Atlantic, the first such time a member of the royal family had crossed the Atlantic by air.

All of the crew and passengers were buried on Arran except Radio Officer Henry Green who was buried at Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey.

Ernest Robert Bristow White Captain BOAC Pilot
Francis Delaforce Bradbrooke Captain ATA Co-pilot

Passengers
James Josiah Anderson Captain RAFFC
Ralph Bruce Brammer Radio Officer RAFFC
John Beatty Drake Radio Officer RAFFC
Daniel Joseph Duggan Captain RAFFC
Henry Samuel Green Radio Officer BOAC
George Thomas Harris Captain RAFFC
Hoyt Ralph Judy Captain RAFFC
Wilfrid Graves Kennedy Radio Officer RAFFC
Watt Miller King Captain RAFFC
Jack Wixen Captain RAFFC
George Laing Radio Officer RAFFC
William Kenneth Marks Radio Officer RAFFC
Hugh Cameron McIntosh Radio Officer RAFFC
Albert Alexander Oliver Radio Officer ATA
George Herbert Powell Radio Officer ATA
John Evan Price Captain RAFFC
Herbert David Rees Radio Officer ATA
Ernest George Reeves Flight Engineer RAFFC
John James Rouleston First Officer RAFFC
Harold Clifford Wesley Smith Captain RAFFC
A casualty of World War II, Jack's name was changed to Jack Wixen. It was formerly Jacob Vichnenko.
The photo to the left has his name incorrectly attributed as James Wixen. It was Jack, not James.
~~~
Jack served with the Royal Air Force Ferry Command. The crash happened on August 10, 1941 and World War II didn't officially start until December 7, 1941, although war was raging in different countries. It just hadn't been declared by America yet.

Jack was 27 and the son of Aron and Tanya Wixen [otherwise Wixchncnkov] of Los Angeles,California, U.S.A. His parents had fled from Russia to Palestine and then the United States where they ultimately settled in Riverside, Ca. for a number of years before moving to Los Angeles.

Jack Wixen was born in Batum, Georgia, Russia in September 1913 but moved to Palestine as a child and then moved to Newark, New Jersey, USA in 1923. He had served as a pilot and instructor for the Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA) and American Airlines prior to joining the RAF as a ferry pilot some four months before his death. He had a brother Balfour Wixen who served in the US Army during WW2.
_____
The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec, Quebec, Canada) 13 Aug. 1941, Wed Page 6
Capt. J. Wixen
Capt. J. Wixen, who occupied the apartment next to Capt. King, came here last year from Los Angeles, California, and formerly flew commercially with Transcontinental and Western Air Lines.
**end of article**

Consolidated Liberator (LB-30A) AM261 of the Atlantic Return Ferry Organisation, flew into Mullach Buidhe north of Goat Fell on the Isle of Arran on 10th August 1941

The aircraft had take off from Heathfield (Ayr) to fly to Gander in eastern Canada with ferry crews on board with the intention of those crews ferrying new aircraft back across the Atlantic. Shortly after take off the aircraft entered cloud and flew into Mullach Buidhe near the head of Coire Lan. The flight crews onboard were from Royal Air Force Ferry Command, Air Transport Auxiliary and British Overseas Airways Corporation. All 22 of the crew and passengers perished in the crash making it the worst crash on Arran. This aircraft had been used less than two weeks earlier to fly the Duke of Kent across the Atlantic, the first such time a member of the royal family had crossed the Atlantic by air.

All of the crew and passengers were buried on Arran except Radio Officer Henry Green who was buried at Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey.

Ernest Robert Bristow White Captain BOAC Pilot
Francis Delaforce Bradbrooke Captain ATA Co-pilot

Passengers
James Josiah Anderson Captain RAFFC
Ralph Bruce Brammer Radio Officer RAFFC
John Beatty Drake Radio Officer RAFFC
Daniel Joseph Duggan Captain RAFFC
Henry Samuel Green Radio Officer BOAC
George Thomas Harris Captain RAFFC
Hoyt Ralph Judy Captain RAFFC
Wilfrid Graves Kennedy Radio Officer RAFFC
Watt Miller King Captain RAFFC
Jack Wixen Captain RAFFC
George Laing Radio Officer RAFFC
William Kenneth Marks Radio Officer RAFFC
Hugh Cameron McIntosh Radio Officer RAFFC
Albert Alexander Oliver Radio Officer ATA
George Herbert Powell Radio Officer ATA
John Evan Price Captain RAFFC
Herbert David Rees Radio Officer ATA
Ernest George Reeves Flight Engineer RAFFC
John James Rouleston First Officer RAFFC
Harold Clifford Wesley Smith Captain RAFFC

Inscription

BELOVED SON
OF TANYA AND ARON WIXEN
GOD REST HIS SOUL



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