TEN YEARS AGO Thursday April 4, 2013
Cash prize to help in hunt for Spitfire crash clues
A local archaeology group has unearthed a welcome cash boost after becoming the latest recipient of a £200 reward from the Rotary Club of Lochaber as part of a generous giveaway.
The grant to the Lochaber Archaeology Society has funded the purchase of a metal detector, headphones and a sophisticated pin-pointer which will help detect smaller fragments of metal on a remote and exposed mountainside near Fort William where a young pilot lost his life on May 16, 1943.
And the money will also help towards the cost of installing a memorial plaque in Glen Nevis.
Seventy years ago a Super Marine Spitfire, piloted by 21-year-old Canadian flying officer John Donald McDonnell, developed engine trouble and crashed into the side slopes of Meall an-t Suidhe on the foothills of Ben Nevis.
John was returning to RAF Fraserburgh from an aerial photographic reconnaissance mission on the West Coast.
The site of the crash is recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as a hill at Achintee, one mile north of Fort William.
He died at the scene and is buried in a war grave in Tomnahurich Cemetery in Inverness.
Most of the aircraft was successfully removed after the crash but, as Robert Cairns, chairman of the Lochaber Archaeological Society, explained: “The description of the location is very loose and it is a huge mountain.
“We have been asked by the War Graves Commission to survey and identify the crash site and supply accurate grid references.
“This generous award from the Rotary Club will provide us with the additional tools that we need to accurately identify the crash site. We in Lochaber can help in a small way by remembering this bravery young Canadian, far from home, who gave his life for the Commonwealth.”
Rotary Club of Lochaber president Sheena Fraser said: “We felt privileged to support this very worthwhile local organisation.”