The view south from Esk Hause to Harter Fell. |
The path to Ill Crag, Great End now on the right. |
Beginning the descent, Esk Pike in the near distance. |
I think she's spotted something! |
The wreckage in relation to Esk Pike, note the square on the rock-face, the plaque. |
The plaque |
HERE LIES THE REMAINS
OF SPITFIRE SL611
IN WHICH
F/LT D J O LOUDON
***LY LOST HIS LIFE 20 11 47
LEST WE FORGET
This is a view of the impact site, looking towards Ill Crag. |
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From here I moved back up to the Scafell Pike path that skirts the south of Broad Crags. I would advise not doing this as the route and instead visiting this site by either dropping down between Great End and Broad Crags, or if visiting this only, approaching from The Corridor route to Scafell Pike and branching off at Greta Gill, south of Round How. To come over the top of Broad Crags exposes a person to cliff faces and at least one deep gulley. I was beginning to think this was actually up on the cliffs, but I sighted one of the engines on a relatively flat grassy section and then spotted the other further below and to the east.
Impact scar, Great Gable beyond. |
If you head for map reference NY217070 and look towards Great Gable, you should see both of the engines.
The higher engine. |
Debris previously gathered and secured behind nearby rocks. |
Looking to Styhead Tarn and the lower engine |
The lower engine, Hollydog giving a scale. |
This plane was acting as an air ambulance, of Royal Navy in Fife. It was transporting a seriously ill patient to Rochester on 30 August 1946 when it struck the mountain on the Scafell Massif, killing all five occupants including the surgeon. Like most of the crashes in the lakes it was attributed to bad weather and having to come down to get under the cloud to get a fix on location; no doubt they wrongly believed themselves clear of a mountainous area.
Sub Lt. Sydney Kenneth Kilsby Pilot (24) - Buried Dunfirmline
CPOA (Chief Petty Officer Airman) Harold John Clark (25) - Cremated South London
Cdr Surgeon William Tudor Gwynne -Jones (54) - Buried Plymouth
Sick Birth Attendant Leslie Howard Watkinson (19) - Owston (All Saints) Churchyard
Commissioned Ward Master Charles Robert Allwright DSM (The patient) (61) - Buried Dunfirmline (Douglas Bank) Cemetery
Sadly the mercy run to save a seriously ill patient ended in tragedy for all on board. Thousands walk The Corridor route to Scafell Pike and never know what they are passing.
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