Dotted around the Bowland fells are the sites of over 14 air crashes in which over 25 air-crew and passengers have lost their lives, most of these occurred in the Second World War, here are the locations of some of these and some details about the causes of these sad accidents.
January 1943
In January 1943 a squadron of 45 Lockheed Lightning P38 were en-route to Murlough in County Down, Northern Ireland to be fitted for desert warfare in Northern Africa, the fells on this day were, as they often are, hidden in low cloud. Struggling to hold formation in the cloudy conditions two of the Lightnings collided, the planes came down a mile apart, one on Dunsop Fell above Dunsop bridge and the second on Baxton Fell further into the hills, both pilots were killed.
January 1945
The biggest plane crash in terms of the number of crew onboard was that of an American Consolidated B24J, emblazoned ‘Come Along Boys’ on its nose, and belonging to the 714th Bomber Squadron, which crashed on Burn Fell above Slaidburn on January the 2nd 1945.
The aircraft was en-route from RAF Seething in Norfolk to RAF Warton, near Freckleton on the Fylde coast, with 19 crew members on board, including an auxiliary crew tasked with flying another aircraft back from Warton to Norfolk.
Five of the crew were killed in the crash which was believed to have occurred when the flight crew became disorientated in low cloud and snowstorms over the fells. They had managed to get a radio fix on Warton and turned on to the new heading but it turned out later to have been grossly incorrect. The radio fix turned out to have been around 20 miles out and as the the aircraft was flying at an approach altitude of only 1,500ft the aircraft did not have enough altitude to clear Burn Fell, which it hit with a glancing blow, bursting into flames.
If you visit the location of the crash site now it is clear to see that the plane almost cleared the fell by only a few feet, there is still a burnt patch of moor there and small amounts of debris including the metal clasps from the top of the crew’s clipboards. A memorial stone marks the approximate location and at the foot of a path leading up to Burn Fell a small memorial has been placed which commemorates all of the crew killed in air crashes around Bowland.
July 1942
On the morning of 16th of July 1942 a Spitfire, number W3628, was being given a test flight following maintenance when its pilot flew into thick cloud covering the Bowland fells. His last radio message stated that he was running out of fuel but after that nothing more was heard from him. The following day search planes flew over the area of his last broadcast but as the hills were still obscured by cloud the aircraft could not be located.
On the 18th of July a farmer spotted the wreckage of an aircraft near Wolfhole Crag, one of the remotest parts of the fells, and a rescue party was sent to the area. The search party found no trace of the pilot at the crash site though so the following day a larger search party consisting of members of the Army, some of whom were stationed at Mitton Hall near Whalley, RAF, Home Guard and local civilians set out to find him, unfortunately he was found dead in the heather a short distance from the wreckage where he had succumbed to injuries.
I’ll write a bit more about air crashes in Bowland in the future as all of the crew who sadly perished on the fells before, during and since World War Two deserve to have their stories told.
As a point of interest both Slaidburn health centre and the mountain rescue station, Smelt Mill in the Trough of Bowland largely owe their existence to these crashes, as it was realised that this is a large tract of land and it would be very difficult to get to the site of any future crashes.
Also the area lies underneath several major air corridors so many of the access roads onto the fells, including the Salter Way, an old Roman road which crosses the fells, are kept maintained and clear, with bridges being reinforced to tolerate the weight of heavy emergency vehicles in case of any future air accident, though hopefully they won’t be needed and most people presume these bridges and tracks are so well looked after because some of them lead onto the grouse moors.
A B-H
Northwest Nature and History 