Hi Skybolt

I really really support the men and women of this country who make the rules for airshows and also general aviation safety. Thus far they have kept me and my family safe at many an airshow.

BUT

I am sick to back teeth of reading people moaning about something that is a past event and no doubt dealt with by the relevant authorities.

As I said Nothing happened and crowds do enjoy a good spectacle.

Yes I would have loved to have been around in the 30’s and 40’s to have seen the sights and heard the sounds but I wouldnt have liked to have lived then.

SNP are a joke Scotland may well be better off as an independant country but I have never voted that way at all.

I still belive in the Great in Great Britain and the United in United Kingdom.

Yes I think independance for Scotland might be a good thing but I bet your are right that the ANO is the same for us as with the rest of the country because it would still be the CAA who had control over what happens in our skies.

But there are 2 things I have never liked and that is religion and politics its just a pity that there are so many politics in something that I love and that is aviation.

I always thought that rules were only there to be broken.

Lost for words.

My thoughts are with all involved and most especially the pilots family.

He gave his life doing what he did best, that I am sure of.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.

Well I remember at one point seeing pictures and a short film of all the worn out Lancasters being trundled along a banking with pits either side the wings with engines attached or not as the case may be being gas torched off and the rest pushed into a big pit at the end by bulldozer. Dont know if they burnt them after this though.

There are here in Scotland a rumour that a Merlin engine was pushed into the fuel farm tank at a well known Scottish base when it was built and countless quarries around the area that all have merlins and the wrecks of aircraft buried in them now under tonnes of rubble. My question is where did all the rubbish go from the airfields back then.

Another rumour was that after the Americans abandoned a base in West Lothian a local quarry filled with water was used to push all the old jeeps truck and Harley’s into. I think there is some truth to this but not a much as some of the locals made out.

Hi Graham.

Not trying to shoot any one down.

Your hearts in the right place I just feel very very strongly about this subject as we all do I think.

It does help if you read all the posts and then think about what you have read for a few minutes.

It in turn does help if you had read my post properly then. The fact that the paper report might have got it wrong is not an issue with me as you will notice from my first and second post I said that I wouldn’t comment on the farmer but only the report.

first post :-I wonder if this is being reported correctly and wont comment on the farmer only the reported statements.
Second post:-I wont comment on the farmer because as you put it the papers quite often fail to get it right.

I don’t think I could have been any clearer on that point.

At the end of the day I can’t afford to chuck money around but instead of bleating on about what a travisty this is why don’t we all put our hands in our pockets and try and make something positve happen.

The point I am trying to make is that with any kind of dig the terms of the agreement in this country is that you return the land to what it was like before you did the dig which is standard and other than a bottle or something similar the farmer or land owner generally gets nothing but the thanks of the team and his own personal satisfaction of having done something nice for the families. No money has ever changed hands with our team and landowners apart from plant hire if we have used the farmer’s plant.

If the report is true WHY should this guy get any money from the team doing the dig unless his land is made unworkable due to toxic waste or the like.

And as for bleating on if we all had your attitude we would have to pay for every single thing that we do in life.

Simply put if the families comments are being reported right then they don’t want to pay for the dig as they don’t think its right either. Perhaps they wouldn’t like money put up for the dig as it would be against their principles.

Firstly, is there any kind of legal imperative regarding the recovery of the remains of Service Personnel who were killed on active service? I have personally never heard of money exchanging hands in order for bodies to be recovered, has anyone else?

Hi Kev. On your first point I have no idea how it works in foreign countries but I think that in this country if you can prove that the remains are still with the aircraft then the family can insist they be recovered. I might be totally wrong on that but I am pretty sure I had seen it somewhere.

And as for money changing hands for body recovery then I definitely haven’t heard of this before.

Peter mentions that the crew did not ‘choose’ to die in a field, by the same token I suspect that the land owner’s family didn’t ‘choose’ to have the aircraft crash there either.

Swings both ways on this I am afraid but I don’t know what the MOD policy is if the farmer decides he is totally fed up with the whole thing and demands the RAF come and remove their aircraft. I think he may be entitled to do that by law but again don’t quote me.

I’m sure that there must be ways in which agencies of the Governments involved could work together to resolve the problem swiftly, satisfactorily and as painlessly to the families and the land owner as possible.

On this point Kev one would like to think that this would be the case but I am sure that its not unless the government got one huge kick up the backside about this. We all know politics just aint like that.

I wonder if this is being reported correctly and wont comment on the farmer only the reported statements.

Quote from report.

“Everyone wants to come on my land and dig, but no one has offered any money to cover the damages,” he said. “I have nothing against giving my permission, but the costs have got to be covered. I can’t say how much it would cost without making a thorough estimate, but it will not be less than €7,500.”

The statement made about offering money is insensative to say the least. Why should anyone have to pay to get their family members remains back.
That would be like our group demanding money because we had found remains on one of our digs.Our group have in the past been donated money by the families to help with the cost being covered which was used for exactly that and to get the farmer a complimentary bottle of whiskey which would have been paid by ourselves anyway to say thank you.
I cant see any way that the estimate to cover land recovery would be as high as this and in a lot of cases the groups have personal and public liability insurance so should anything go wrong they would be covered. I would hope this would include any land problems that would occur such as contamination by oils or fuels but I am unsure about that.

Mr Bender said that grave robbers had been on the land looking for souvenirs from the aircraft and he was “fed up” with people trespassing.

If this statment is true then doesnt he realise that if the team clean the site up and raise a memorial detailing the dig then he wouldnt get as many people going to do this type of activity as there would be virtually nothing left near the surface to find.

Strange world we live in I would say.