Winter Hill Air Disaster  RSS feed | About

The front page of the Bolton Evening News on February 27, 1958

THE Winter Hill air crash dominated the front page of the Bolton Evening News on Thursday, February 27, 1958.

The terrible weather that contributed to the crash, on the moors near the Independent Television Authority Centre building, also hampered rescue attempts.

The newspaper reported: "Rescuers had to struggle through snow sometimes 6ft deep to get to the crash, and fog brought visibility down to almost nil on the 1,498ft moors.

"Ambulances from almost every nearby town were sent to the crash, but they were held up until a bulldozer had cleared a path for them. Three RAF helicopters were sent to the scene, the first with a doctor aboard, but fog prevented them from landing.

"First reports were that the helicopters could not land, but a fire was lit at the junction of Chorley Old Road and Victoria Road, Horwich, in the hope that if one of the machines had been able to pick up any survivors it would land there, where ambulances were standing by."

The plane broke up on impact, and the Bolton Evening News reported: "As soon as they reached the spot, two hours after the accident, police and helpers covered a wide area, searching for passengers who might still be living. At a first count, there were 28 bodies lying in the snow."

A photographer who was one of the first to arrive told the Bolton Evening News: "Parts of the wreckage were strewn over a wide area. The engines and wings had become detached from the plane and a landing wheel was embedded in the earth about 100 yards from the main wreckage.

"Little parcels, personal belongings and pieces of clothing littered the moorland, which was thick with snow."

crash scene: An aerial view of the scene taken a week after the crash shows the tail section, bottom left, and one wing

Two wards were cleared at Bolton Royal Infirmary. The first ambulance driver to arrive at the hospital, William McKenna, said: "We got to Georges Lane and then the roads were blocked. Four of us got out with our kit-bags of dressings and walked to Winter Hill through the snow with the kit. The mist was so thick we couldn't see anything.

"Then we saw the building. They had already started to bring in the injured.

"We dumped the dressings on the ground and then started tending the injured. A doctor came and we told him which of the men were the most seriously injured, and he examined them and told us which to take first.

"Then they got through with four or five ambulances and we lifted on two patients. One was one of the crew and the other a passenger."

Another ambulance driver, Hugh Morgan, of Chorley, who brought two survivors from the crash, said: "I have never seen anything like it. Wreckage from the plane is scattered all around the moorland and bodies are lying many feet from the plane.

"We could only get to within about three miles of the crash and then we had to walk to the top. Snow was lying in three and four-feet drifts and the toughest job was getting survivors and bodies from the plane to the TV station."

By 2.15pm the transfer of injured crew and passengers to ambulances had been completed. Cllr Dr J O Bennett, from Horwich, one of the first doctors to arrive, said: "We had to work like Trojans tending the injured and administering morphine and stimulants. Some of them were badly knocked about, one of them died while I was with him."

The emergency services sent all available personnel to the crash site. Sub-officer Lee, of Horwich Fire Brigade, was among the first on the scene. He said: "We established a casualty clearing station at the ITA site immediately. The stewardess was in when I got there - she had managed to get there somehow. I counted 15 dead altogether."

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