sentences: "His knowledge of central Europe was probably unequaled," wrote the "New York Times" after his sudden death in 1943, at age 46, when his plane crashed seconds after take off from Gibraltar.The plane, a B-24 Liberator II LB-30 AL523 was also carrying General Sikorski and fellow Conservative MP Brigadier John Whiteley; Sikorski, Whiteley and everyone else on board (except for first pilot Eduard Prchal)—sixteen in all—died in the crash.