Easter Balloch Hill is almost due west of Loch Lee and it is where the Water of Lee, that later flows into that loch, rises. Its height is given as 2731′ in my old GB road atlas. It is just under 40 miles NNW of Leuchars. Since the crash took place well over an hour after take-off, some have speculated that the crew were trying to find their way back to base. One report briefly says that the aircraft was “burned out in crash at 2550′ …. while approaching Leuchars“. This may be the source of the information that it was returning from Sweden.

It had previously made four return flights to Stockholm, the first being on 23 July 1943. This, its fifth outward journey, was flight number 11B 452. The aircraft accident reports are AVIA 2/2346 (in the National Archives at Kew) and AW/1/2035 (in the British Airways Heritage Collection).

I have drawn this information from A.J.Jackson’s “British Civil Aircraft 1919-59” book, from the 1994/1996 book “Blockade Runners” and from Nils Mathisrud’s recently published book “The Stockholm Run“.

The photograph in the cutting that prompted this thread is IWM reference number CH 10664.

I would still be interested to learn more about the BBC radio broadcast concerning BOAC’s wartime services. Does anyone know anything about this programme?

You are correct about the identity of the Mosquito. There are two shots of this aircraft taking off that night.

One shows G-AGGF to the right of center, photographed from the rear showing its port side at an oblique angle (the runway lights to the left of the aircraft). This appears in the HMSO booklet “Merchant Airman” across pages 194 and 195.

The second photograph (the one in this cutting) was taken from the other side, also from the rear but showing the starboard side of the aircraft but from a less oblique angle, so more of the fuselage is visible. The runway lights are on the right of the photograph and less obvious.

They were Air Ministry photographs, now with the Imperial war Museum, I believe.

G-AGGF was lost on the outward journey. It took off from Leuchars at 20.16 on 17 August 1943, crewed by Captain Louis Alfred Wilkins (known as Bill) and Flt Sgt. Harold Beamont, seconded from the RAF as the Radio Officer. It was carrying 1338 lbs of mail. The R/O made several calls requesting a true bearing from a station and a magnetic heading. Replies were acknowledged by the R/O, the last of these being at 21.34. It crashed at a shallow angle, scattering the wreckage over a wide area of the moor at Easter Balloch Hill, near Inverness Lodge at Glen Lee in Angus. It was 40 degrees off course. The wreckage was not located until 7 September 1943. The Court of Inquiry speculated that the aircraft had suffered a major instrument or compass failure. There are contemporary photographs of the crash site at the British Airways Heritage Centre and in the National Archives.

In 1984, an ATC unit recovered the starboard elevator, which is displayed at its HQ in Aberdeen. In the 1990s, Yorkshire Air Museum recovered some further parts.

There is a well-known IWM photograph (available on-line, I believe) of a pilot in a white flying suit about to climb into a BOAC Mosquito at Leuchars. That is Bill Wilkins and the person on the right of the photograph is Harold Beaumont.

There was an ‘open day’ on 11 March 1962. I was there and have a couple of photos somewhere.

Thanks for that information. I’m a lapsed enthusiast but have kept some of my “stuff” from way back then. Having seen the webpage I cited earlier, I had assumed that it was in 1961. When I dug out an old notebook from 1961, I could find nothing about it. That is what perplexed me, as my memory was relatively clear, despite the passage of time.

I have to go out now but, once I return, I’ll see if I can dig out anything I have from my ‘aircraft days’ in 1962.

This is a question about the runway at Woolsington in the 1960s. Let me start with a bit of background.

Woolsington opened in 1935 as a grass airfield and it was 1954 before a “lengthy tarmac runway” was laid. This ran roughly SW-NE (that is, the line of the present runway) and was shown in 1959 as 5300 feet x 150 feet. One 3200 feet grass strip was retained which ran South-North, crossing the “tarmac” runway at a point part-way between the present terminal building and the general aviation area. The airport was closed for several months in 1965-1966 for the runway to be lengthened and strengthened. I guess that the grass strip was “retired” during the construction of the new terminal which was officially opened in 1967. The present runway is shown on the CAA website as 7640 feet x 148 feet (my rough conversion from metres into feet).

Does anyone know if the 1965-1966 extension produced the present length of runway?

OR

Has there been a subsequent (post-1966) runway extension?

In a still photograph of different members of the tour party taken at an airport “in England”, it is just possible to make out the letters “BKS” on the (boarding?) cards in their hands. I assume therefore that the airport was Woolsington and they took the Ambassador to London, where they transferred to a BEA Trident for the flight on to Paris.

I believe that the hut they were leaving in the film footage is now part of the General Aviation/Aero Club section of the airport, on the opposite side of the site from the modern terminal. I also understand that, back in May 1966, the Woolsington authorities had recently reopened the airport, having closed it for several months to extend the existing runway there.

In the still photograph, the posture of one of the tour party members and the “general background atmosphere” seem to indicate that it was taken fairly early on a misty morning, so possibly the first BKS flight of the day to London. At that time, I believe BEA flew an hourly service to Le Bourget.

The oddity is that, as I understand it, BKS did have one direct Woolsington-Paris service per day in 1966, though I’ve not seen any documentary evidence to that effect.

Thank you for the link to the history of BKS. When I saw the Ambassador in the background of the film, I immediately thought of BKS, given that they acquired some ex-BEA machines around the time of my interest in aviation.

In terms of Dylan’s touring schedule at that time, Woolsington would be the best fit of the three suggestions. Dylan played a concert in Newcastle on 21 May 1966, arrived in Paris on 22 May for a concert there on 24 May 1966. The Newcastle concert, the arrival at Le Bourget and his Paris concert were all filmed, in whole or in part. As i recall, the arrival at Le Bourget was aboard a BEA aircraft.

It seems likely then that he and the touring party took an internal flight from Woolsington to LAP/Heathrow, from where they then took a BEA flight to Le Bourget.

That’s the scenario I would suggest but I would still welcome anyone confirming that the “hut” in the film was indeed the airport building at Woolsington in 1966.