Air crash orphan breaks her silence after 50 years
AWOMAN orphaned by one of the worst aviation disasters in British history has broken her silence ahead of the 50th anniversary.
Amanda Stott, from Bollington, was six-yearsold when her parents Brian and Anne were killed when a holiday charter aircraft crashed on Stockport town centre.
The tragedy on June 4, 1967, killed 72 people on board. Amazingly, 10 passengers, a stewardess and the pilot survived.
Amanda and members of her family are attending a memorial service at the memorial at Hopes Carr this Sunday.
Amanda, 56, said: “I have never been to the memorial or spoken publicly about what happened. As children my brother Philip and I were never encouraged to talk about it. People handled things very differently back then. It was probably too painful.
“Mum and dad had been on their first holiday since they were married. I was staying with my grandparents.
“I recall my grandmother saying to me ‘they are not coming back’.
“As a child you are a lot more accepting of things, but I know it was monumental for my family.
“My grandfather, mum’s dad, never got over it. It broke his heart.”
At the time of the crash Amanda’s parents were running a post office in Cheadle.
Amanda and her brother, who was only three, went to live with her aunt and uncle in a house next door to her grandparents.
Her family used compensation cash from the airline to pay for a private education for the children.
Amanda says while this helped her to become independent, it prevented her from dealing her loss.
Amanda, who is an independent councillor for Cheshire East Council, said: “I didn’t properly acknowledge what had happened until my 30s, around the 25th anniversary, when an author contacted me.
“I realised I had never talked about it or even looked at newspaper cuttings.
“It’s like I had put it in a box so I didn’t have to think about it any more.
“Seeing it in black and white hit me massively.”
Among Amanda’s most cherished possessions are postcards her parents sent from their holiday.
She said: “I think about mum and dad every day.
“On my desk at home I have a trophy dad won where I keep my pens and I have a few photos of them, to redress the balance that there were none when I was growing up.
“My memories of mum and dad are blended with stories and photos.
“But there is one I am sure is my own and that is of me sat up in bed between them laughing.
“That’s what I remember most about them, the laughter. They were always having fun.”