ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 184385
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| Date: | Thursday 24 October 1940 |
| Time: | 21:00 |
| Type: |  Vickers Wellington Mk IC |
| Owner/operator: | 20 OTU RAF |
| Registration: | L7775 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 7 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Bruach Mhor, Beinn a'Bhuird, Cairngorm Mountains, Aberdeenshire -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Lossiemouth (LMO/EGQS) |
| RAF Lossiemouth |
Wellington IA L7775 took off from Lossiemouth on 24th October 1940 on a night navigation exercise routing Base - Brechin - Kinnaird Head - Inverness - Base. Crashed at approximately 21:00 hrs into Bruach Mhor on Beinn a' Bhuird. It is understood that the pilot, P/O D V Gilmour mistook the snow covered mountain for cloud. Five of the seven men on board survived the crash, of the five, three were to lose their lives later in the war.
Two airmen died in this incident, and five survived the crash. The two airmen who died were:
P/O Herbert Martin Coombs (28), Pilot, RAFVR. (Buried, Grave 9, Dyce Old Churchyard, Dyce, Aberdeenshire.
Sgt Frank Hutson, W/Op / Air Gnr. (under training), RAFVR. (Buried, Section G, Grave 5183, Sheffield (Crookes) Cemetery.
Those who survived this incident (with injuries), but who died on later missions were:
P/O Douglas Veale Gilmour, RAF, (Mentioned in Despatches.)
P/O Gilmour died on 16 December 1941, aged 26, during a later mission. (Commemorated, Panel 30, Runnymede Memorial.)
P/O Kenneth Winchcome Bordycott, Navigator, RAFVR.
P/O Bordycott died on 17 April 1943, aged 22, during a later mission. (Buried, Grave 5, Brimont Churchyard, France.)
Flt Sgt John Adam Sparks, Air Gnr., RAFVR.
Flt Sgt Sparks died on 20 August 1942, aged 25, during a later mission. (Buried, Neumünster originally. Re-interred later at Grave 6A.D.1, Hamburg Cemetery, Ohlsdorf, Germany.
The two airmen who survived the war were:
Sgt A W Milroy.
Sgt George Lyon.
This site is - at an altitude of about 900 metres - particularly impressive, as the aircraft made a crater when it crashed which is still visible as a scar on the side of the mountain. Large portions of the wreckage of L7775 were still present at the crash site until 1986, when they were recovered; the wings went to the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre at East Kirkby, and the tail section was recovered and sent to the Wellington Aviation Museum at Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Gloucestershire
Sources:
1. https://www.aircrashsites-scotland.co.uk/wellington_bruach-mhor.htm
2. Aircraft Wrecks: The Walker's Guide : Historic Crash Sites on the Moors By Nick Wotherspoon, Alan Clark, Mark Sheldon (page 308)
3. https://heavywhalley.wordpress.com/2015/06/12/munro-adventure-2015-day-40-9th-june-ben-avon-beinn-abhuird-beinn-a-chaorainn-beinn-bhreac/
4. http://www.edwardboyle.com/wreck7.html
5. http://www.archieraf.co.uk/scs/wellingtonl7775.html
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 11-Feb-2016 14:35 | gerard57 | Added |
| 14-Jan-2017 21:28 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Operator, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 14-Jan-2017 21:28 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Destination airport] |
| 14-Jan-2017 21:31 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Narrative] |
| 30-Oct-2018 08:22 | Nepa | Updated [Operator, Destination airport, Operator] |
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