Dumfries and Galloway

Flight PA103 departed London-Heathrow runway 27R for New York at 18:25. The aircraft levelled off at FL310, 31 minutes later. At 19:03 Shanwick Oceanic Control transmitted an oceanic clearance. At that time an explosion occurred in the aircraft's forward cargo hold at position 4L. The explosive forces produced a large hole in the fuselage structure and disrupted the main cabin floor. Major cracks continued to propagate from the large hole while containers and items of cargo ejected through the hole, striking the empennage, left- and right tail plane. The forward fuselage and flight deck area separated when the aircraft was in a nose down and left roll attitude, peeling away to the right at Station 800. The nose section then knocked the no. 3 engine off its pylon. The remaining aircraft disintegrated while it was descending nearly vertically from 19000 feet to 9000 feet. A section of cabin floor and baggage hold (from approx. Station 1241-1920) fell onto housing at Rosebank Terrace, Lockerbie. The main wing structure struck the ground with a high yaw angle at Sherwood Crescent, Lockerbie causing a massive fire. The Semtex bomb which caused the explosion had probably been hidden in a radio cassette player and was transferred to PA103 from a Pan Am Boeing 727 flight, arriving from Frankfurt. After a three-year joint investigation by the Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation indictments for murder were issued on November 13, 1991, against Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer and the head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines (LAA), and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, the LAA station manager in Luqa Airport, Malta. United Nations sanctions against Libya and protracted negotiations with the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi secured the handover of the accused on April 5, 1999. On January 31, 2001, Megrahi was convicted of murder by a panel of three Scottish judges, and sentenced to 27 years in prison. Fhimah was acquitted.

Upon landing at RAF West Freugh, the right main gear collapsed. The airplane slid on its belly and eventually came to rest on a grassy area to the right of the runway. All 11 occupants escaped uninjured while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair. It was completing a flight on behalf of the Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment.

The aircraft had taken off from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk at 0917LT for a Radar Navigation Flight which was to be followed by 4 hours of Air to Air refueling practice with a Boeing B-50. At 1103LT the aircraft was in contact with the controller at Prestwick, having entered the Scottish Flight Information Region, the pilot reported they were at a altitude of ~14,500 feet in visual conditions. Only 7 minutes later the aircraft was seen be witnesses on the ground descending out of cloud at 1,500 to 2,000 feet over Carsphairn on a NNW course. They stated that the engines sounded different to the aircraft which normally over-flew the area. The aircraft then turned onto a SE course before stalling and entering a spin from which it did not recover before impacted the ground in a deep gully at the edge of a field. The fuel tanks, containing an estimated 8,000 US Gallons exploded and completely destroyed the aircraft, scattering it over a considerable area.
Crew:
1st Lt Joseph A. O'Leary, pilot,
1st Lt George Merrill Foote, copilot,
1st Lt Claude Jacques Hayden Jr., navigator,
S/Sgt Noel M. Poppof, flight engineer,
Cpt Tennant A. Metz, radar operator,
Cpl John B. Simpson, radio operator,
Cpl John P. Finnegan, scanner,
1st Lt Jack W. Kern, boom instructor,
Sgt Henry H. Hill, boom operator,
S/Sgt Wallace L. Scott, boom operator,
Cpl Reginald Y. Russell, boom operator.
Source:
http://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/crash_sites/scotland/boeing-kb-29p-44-83950-carsphairn/

The aircraft had taken off from Millom in southwest Cumbria for a navigation and bombing exercise, while flying south over the mountains of southern Scotland the aircraft struck the snow covered northern slope of Craigronald. The crash was reported fairly quickly and a Mountain Rescue Team was sent out form Wigtown, when they arrived they found 1 crew member alive but he died before reaching hospital.
Crew (2nd AFU):
F/Sgt Colwyn Parker Angus, pilot,
Sgt Maurice Schneider, navigator,
Sgt John Walter Melhuish, bomb aimer,
Sgt Kenneth Richard Ridehalgh, wireless operator.
Source:
http://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/pages/scotland/scotlandeg693.htm

While cruising at low height in marginal weather conditions over the Irish Sea, the aircraft hit the Mull of Galloway (400 feet high) located south of Port Logan, Wigtownshire. The aircraft hit the mountain six feet from its summit and was totally destroyed. All 22 occupants were killed, among them two medical staff and US soldiers wounded in Normandy and flying back to the US.
Crew:
1st Lt Galen R. Hendricks, pilot,
2nd Lt Raymond Hutchings, copilot,
F/O Dan Willard Meshew, pilot,
2nd Lt Leon Julius Tully, navigator,
Sgt Jay V. Alcorn, radio operator,
S/Sgt Merl William Skinner, crew chief.
Passengers:
2nd Lt Mary Edith Jackley,
John Henry Salmi,
Maj Irving I. Shure,
2nd Lt John Wilbur Ingram,
2nd Lt Theron S. Ward,
Sgt Ernest Howard Corvin,
Sgt Billy G. Morris,
Cpl Elmer F. Lauf,
James D. Green,
Keith Glenn Lowdermilk,
Marcus Saspochnikoff,
James E. W. Ayers,
Edmund Leroy Davis,
Donald R. Hammerstrom,
Jack F. Sheidler,
LAC Samuel Gilmour.
Source:
http://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/pages/scotland/Douglas-C-47A-42-93038-Cairngarroch-Bay.htm

The crew was engaged in a night training exercise. En route, while cruising at an altitude of 2,250 feet, the twin engine aircraft hit a mountain slope located near Mt Bennanbrack, some 6 miles north of Newton Stewart. All five crew members were killed.
Crew:
F/Sgt Raymond John Crotty, pilot,
Sgt Darius Bede Northmore, navigator,
W/O Peter Smith, wireless operator and air gunner,
Sgt Bertram Ernest William Becker,
Sgt Edward Hugh Patrick Cresswell, wireless operator and air gunner.
Source & photos:
http://www.aircrashsites-scotland.co.uk/anson_bennanbrack.htm

The aircraft took off from Dumfries at 2017LT on the 22nd February for a night navigation exercise around the northern Irish Sea / North Channel area. The intended route was Dumfries - Silloth - Mull of Galloway - Rathlin Island - 55'50"N 06'40"W (a point some 8 miles off the west coast of Islay) - Mull of Galloway - Silloth - Dumfries, a total distance of 380 miles. Also an Infra-Red bombing exercise was to be conducted at Whithorn (south of Wigtown on the Silloth - Mull of Galloway leg) on both the outward and return legs. The progress of the flight was reported by radio and ground tracking as being slightly off course to port between the Mull of Galloway and Rathlin and off course to starboard on he return leg to the Mull of Galloway from off Islay. The crew were able to use the Occult navigation light at West Freugh on the return leg to correct their course to arrive over Withorn for their second pass at the IR target but visibility was reported by them as poor so they did not carry out the IR bombing exercise. At this point they decided to set a direct course to Dumfries from the West Freugh Occult with radio navigation assistance from Wigtown. At 2336LT the aircraft was reported by West Freugh to be almost due North of them with the crew reporting that they were flying at 3,000 feet. A couple of minutes later the aircraft flew into the western side of Cairnsmore of Fleet at just over 2,100 feet and only a mile north of their intended track. The aircraft impacted a large patch of boulders and much of the forward end was badly damaged by the impact, the aircraft carried on up the slope for a short way before coming to a halt, there was no fire following the crash. When the aircraft did not arrive at Dumfries it was declared missing and a search was begun at dawn on the 23rd, in the mean time and despite his injuries the pilot Sgt McLeod set off on foot from the crash site, arriving at Bardrochwood Farm at the foot of Cairnsmore. It was 2100LT on the 23rd before the crash site was reached by the rescue party from Wigtown and Lalonde was rescued. The other crew members had either died in the crash or succumbed to their injuries and the cold before help arrived, both were recorded as having happened by the RAF Dumfries Medical Officer.
Crew:
Sergeant N. J. McLeod, pilot
P. J. Lalonde, navigator
John Morgan Cooley, bomb aimer, †
Warrant Officer Jack James Mount Ward, wireless operator, air gunner and instructor, †
Sergeant Mervyn Charles Simpson, wireless operator and air gunner, †
Source: http://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk

The crew were on a night navigation exercise from RAF Wigtown, they were returning to their base but overshot on a northerly heading and flew into high ground to the North of Newton Stewart at around 22:00. After it failed to return to Wigtown the aircraft was declared overdue. At 00:30 on the 2nd September the station's Medical Officer was informed and he assembled a search party. They met with the local Police in Newton Stewart to begin searching at first light. The search teams located the crash site at 12:30, by that time Sgt Crosby had, despite head injuries and a broken bone in his right foot, been able to make his own way off the hill, arriving at Craigencallie.
Crew (1st AFU):
Sgt Ronald Hunter McArthur, pilot,
Sgt Manning, navigator,
Sgt Crosby, wireless operator,
Sgt Sidney Arthur Bussey, wireless operator and air gunner, †
Sgt Jack Arthur Coombes, wireless operator and air gunner. †
Source:
http://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/pages/scotland/scotlandn5032.htm

During the take-off roll, a tyre burst. An undercarriage collapse and the aircraft skidded on runway before coming to rest. All five crewmen were unhurt while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

Crashed on landing. No casualties.