US family finally find their father
An American family finally found the site where their father died in a plane crash near Dalmally almost 60 years ago ... thanks to a walker passing the time while his daughter was dancing.
Gary Nelson, from near Newcastle, travels with his wife Donna around the UK taking their daughter Heather to Highland dancing competitions.
To pass the time, he started walking up nearby hills looking for plane crash sites, and began a blog called ‘What to do while Highland dancing’.
Gary said: ‘I have now visited more than 150 crash sites. I am making people aware of them.’
Last August, on the weekend of the 2017 World Highland Dancing Championships at Cowal, Gary visited the crash site of a North American F100 Super Sabre 55-3671 on Beinn Donachain, a 650m Graham near Dalmally.
‘This crash site was easy to spot even with a faceful of midges,’ Gary wrote, ‘as a piece of stainless steel was sticking up above the heather and glistening in the sun. All that was left is what looks like the very tail-end of the jet with the remains of the tailplane still attached.’
Then in November Gary received a surprising message from Jim Kesson in Portland, Oregon, saying: ‘I want to thank you so much for posting these pictures of the F100 Super Sabre. My father was 1st Lt Richard Warren Kesson, who I believe was the pilot of this plane. He crashed in 1960 when I was two years old. I have been looking online for evidence of where he crashed for a long time. Now I know where his plane is I am going to go there with my sister. My mother is 83 and too old to make the trip.’
Last Sunday, the siblings finally made the trip.
Jim said: ‘We hiked about a half mile straight up. Gary guided us right to the top of the mountain.
‘We found my dad’s plane. We had a moment of silence, my sister and I. We made a cairn in front of the wreckage. We placed a monument made of granite on the rock. We said goodbye to our dad, and honoured him. Then we came down.
‘It was definitely closure after a lifetime of searching.’