‘My memory is still vivid of what I had to do ... it was horrific’
‘MY memory is still vivid of what I had to do. It was horrific.’
David Booth, 73, of Heaton Chapel, was a police motorcyclist in the traffic division and served from 1963 to 1993.
Then just 23-years-old, he helped transport the wreckage of the Stockport Air Crash to investigators and still has his notebooks that document the harrowing journey.
He was on a day off on June 4, 1967, but was immediately called back in to deal with the aftermath of the disaster.
Initially he helped with the harrowing task of placing the bodies from the plane into freezers at a temporary mortuary at Lee Street police station’s car park.
David also had to source the ice necessary to keep them cold.
And four days after the crash he escorted the plane’s broken fuselage from Hopes Carr so it could be examined by the RAF.
The notebooks he recorded the details in are still items he treasures.
David said: “I have all my notebooks from 1963 to 1993, as an inspector when I retired I decided to keep all these records and memories.
“I was 23 at the time and the youngest traffic officer in the borough. My memory is still vivid of what I had to do. It was horrific.
“It was a job to do, you have to detach yourself from it. I have never talked about it before.”