A WELL-KNOWN fisherman who installed a plaque to mark the death of a pilot who crashed into Morecambe Bay died himself just the day before the anniversary.

On November 9 in 1944 Polish pilot Kazimierz Pyka crash landed on the sands of the Leven Estuary close to the shore at Old Park in Holker.

He was flying in his Miles Martinet when somewhere just north of Greenodd the propeller and its housing came adrift from the plane.

From then on he was simply gliding; looking for a place to land.

He glided in from the south, over the railway just east of Plumpton viaduct, and came down on the sand.

Ahead of him was a man-made sea wall, only a couple of feet high, which flipped the plane forwards and Warrant Officer Pyka landed upside-down on the north side of the wall in deep mud.

Jack Manning, who was 12 at the time, witnessed the crash.

"The rescue teams didn’t locate the plane until late afternoon the following day so at least two tides had been over the plane; Kazimierz was certainly dead," he told The Mail last month.

"The rescue teams worked for three days to try to recover the body of the pilot but with no success. He and the plane are still down there.

"I had gone with my uncle with a horse and cart.

"My uncle Bill went to the scene of the accident and I stayed with the horse.

"Last year I decided that he ought to have some sort of memorial near to where he died so I commissioned a small plaque to be placed on a small cliff a hundred or so yards from where his remains lie.

"We held a small ceremony and the plaque was unveiled by Lord Cavendish."

Tragically, Mr Manning passed away peacefully at home on November 8, the day before the anniversary of the pilot's crash.

He was surrounded by his family including Margaret; his wife of 65 years.

A funeral service was held on Saturday November 16 at John the Baptist Church in Flookburgh.