Environmental
Impact - Crashed Planes
Glen
Carron
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Environmental
Impact - Crashed Planes
|
Glen
Carron
|
 Photograph Copyright David W Earl Dave's Wrecks |
On 3rd June 1943, a B-26 Marauder had taken off from Iceland, on the next leg of a ferrying trip from the USA. The crew which comprised of 5 airmen, were according to the aircraft accident report, bound for Horam, Suffolk, England. Weather was poor that day, with low cloud, fog and drizzle which would make navigation very difficult. |
| The
B-26 was heading for the airfield staging post at Prestwick, Scotland, and
the pilot was flying on instruments and letting down in the dense overcast,
but the descent was being made too early for approach, so he was most likely
just trying to fly part contact and part instrument and hit the mountain
as a result, killing all 5 crew outright. The pilot First Lieutenant Young was quite an experienced pilot with a tally of 450 flying hours since August 1942, and some 250 hours on the B-26 Marauder, however, the majority of these hours would have been in the USA where flying weather would have been much better. It is of interest that on a section of the accident report a footnote submitted in the report advises that |
|
`he
was briefed at Meeks Field to the effect that anything other
than a strictly contact (Visual) flight from Stornaway to Prestwick would not be attempted. I.e. No on Top (Above cloud) or instrument flying, and that if such contact flight was not possible, planes should either land at Stornaway, or return to Meeks Field` |
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Based
on this latter note it would appear that Lt Young was just following
orders, in that he was trying to keep in contact with the ground, rather
than fly in cloud on instruments, or above the cloud, and he was probably
contemplating a landing at Stornaway. |
