The Memorial Plague to the 1958 Air Crash Victims has been stolen (most likely weighed in) since the last time I was here only a few weeks ago.
Shortly after arriving at the Communication Station Owen & I were joined by what looked like an organised group of walkers, but first let me fill you in on what happened here on Winter Hill on 27th February 1958
Sadly on 27th February 1958 thirty-five people lost their lives when a Bristol 170 Freighter flying from the Isle of Man to Manchester airport crashed close to the Transmitting Station, so severe was the weather that morning that all the engineers were completely un-aware at what had un-folded only a few hundred metres away. A Snow Cat vehicle on the nearby A6 had to be diverted to cut a path for the rescuers.
My fellow walkers could not hide their anger at the Memorial Plague being stolen, one of which remembers the actual crash & its exact location, Ill try my best to re-type his words because I found them really interesting & at times very sad.
The plane was on its way to Manchester Airport full of workers bound for the Exide Battery plant in Manchester, back then Air Control wasn’t run via modern digital radio but by Beacons…the flight was still operating within the St Helens Beacon (Merseyside) when the pilot should have switched to the Manchester Beacon only moments earlier.
After the Control Tower had realised his error they radioed to the pilot to switch to the Manchester beacons & immediately make a sharp right turn, the pilot couldn’t see the ground as he was flying in blizzard conditions, only relying on Air Traffic Control.
Twenty seconds after making that right turn the plane carrying over thirty passengers including workers children crashed into the hill side not 200 yards from this exact location, as stated the storm so fierce the engineers stationed at Winter Hill did not hear a thing through the storm.
A bet they got less than a tenner for that memorial, bloody mindless! bloody mindless! that plague has been here since 1958
Very sad, & very true. |