Survivor of air crash to lead osprey expedition
CONSERVATIONIST Sacha Dench is beginning her first expedition since being involved in a mid-air collision which claimed the life of her cameraman.
She said the trip will be dedicated to her late colleague as much as it is to conservation.
Dan Burton, 54, died when the pair’s paramotors – powered parachutes – collided in the Highlands last September.
Miss Dench, dubbed the ‘human swan’ for flying some 4,300 miles on a paramotor across Russia and Europe in 2016 to track Bewick’s swans, survived the crash but was left with life-changing injuries.
Now, just months out of hospital, the Australian-born biologist, who still has one of her legs
‘We are doing this for Dan’
in a metal brace and requires crutches to walk, is setting off on the Flight of the Osprey expedition today.
Miss Dench is leading a team of nine to follow the migration route of the bird of prey some 6,213 miles from the Moray coast to Ghana through 14 countries – a trip that will last about four months.
The expedition will be carried out in vividly painted vans and by boat.
Miss Dench, 46, said: ‘We are doing this expedition for Dan just as much as we are doing it for the ospreys. I know he would be cheering me and the team on. He’ll be with us along the way.’
The aim of the mission is to track four tagged birds and gather data on the impacts of climate change and human activities on ospreys.
Ospreys migrate on their own, which means the young ones make the often perilous journey without adults birds.
Just 70 per cent of juveniles return for breeding, and the team wants to know more about why that is the case.