Memorial Wreath Laid for 1951 Lancaster Crash

In the evening of the 13th March 1951, an Avro Lancaster G.R.Mk3 TX264 of 120 Sqn RAF left RAF Kinloss for a night navigation exercise. While on the final leg of their training at around 02.00hrs on the 14th March and with only 30 minutes till landing, it crashed into Beinn Eighe. The exercise had been flown in horrendous weather conditions with poor visibility, freezing conditions and strong NE’ly winds. The last radio message reported “60 miles north of Cape Wrath” with nothing else heard. The aircraft had struck just 15 feet from the summit at the top of the inaccessible Far West Gully, above Loch Coire Mhic Fhearchair in the Torridon Mountains, which are above 3000ft. All eight aircrew were killed.
 
A RAF Mountain Rescue Team were sent from RAF Kinloss but were hampered, as the site was remote and in the depth of a severe winter. All of the rescue gear had to be backpacked into the site, some nine miles over hostile terrain with the added problem of deep snow. Up until this crash the belief of senior officers had been that what was needed for mountain rescue was fit stretcher-bearers and not mountaineers and so help from local mountaineers was initially spurned. As a result only four bodies were recovered in a relatively short time while the other four would prove harder to find and take down the mountain, with the final body not recovered till August. The wreckage of the Lancaster was destroyed in situ by explosives.
 
As a consequence of the crash and subsequent rescue, the RAF Mountain Rescue Teams were reorganised into the organisation we know today.
 
Former members of Kinloss MRT, Peter McGowan and Tom Taylor as well as 5 current team members placed a wreath at the memorial plaque of the Lancaster. They were accompanied by a Royal Navy helicopter from HMS Gannet Search and Rescue base at Prestwick International Airport, pertinent as the original MRT were assisted by a Royal Marine Commando and RN Lt with more climbing experience than the team members.