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By: 5th December 2018 at 20:12 Permalink
-Is he being paid to keep it or, more likely, did Mr. Windley win the contract to scrap the stuff and just pile it up instead?
For the reason of the tragedy alone the stuff should be smelted and disappear. If not, it will forever be "discovered" every so often and brought to public attention, thereby reopening old wounds for some and awful memories for many.
Anon.
By: 5th December 2018 at 20:47 Permalink
-At risk of sounding sarky, if you read the artisler, it will tell you.
Adrian
By: 5th December 2018 at 22:35 Permalink
-I think what surprises me most is that those remains are stored outdoors where any forensic evidence will possibly have deteriorated over time. The Megrahi case has never fully gone away and is presently under review by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission. I know a lot of testing will have been done at the time of the bombing but more might yet need to be done depending on the outcome of that review.
By: 6th December 2018 at 01:26 Permalink - Edited 6th December 2018 at 01:27
-Diverting from the main topic (apologies) what are those 3 helios stored behind that building ? I was tempted to think Whirlwind or Wessex but I'm not so sure.
By: 6th December 2018 at 01:32 Permalink
-Too close to home for me, I was walking up to my resettlement training at home when it went in, a minute earlier and I would have been wearing it, I still remember the haunting sound of a lone siren in the near distance on that night as the first vehicle from Carlisle responded followed by the cachopony as all of the other emergency service vehicles responded and headed north. Of trying to talk sense into people wanting to go see, and then as I was walked home seeing the first Chinook responder flying over, I having came off Chinooks a few years before was duly impressed that they had got the crews in, the kit together, generated a cab and got her up the length of the UK in a scant few hours.
People I know were respondents that night, both military and civil, and the stories they told me made my decision to stop the stupid attempting to travel up there all the more worthwhile, I remember watching the seakings and Chinook carry out their searches, but a few short miles from my home. Tragic, utterly tragic and such a waste of innocent lives.
By: 6th December 2018 at 02:57 Permalink
-91Regal...
The helicopters are Whirlwinds.
I was on the command staff at Bentwaters/Woodbridge. When I saw the news report I called the command post (now a feature of the Bentwaters Cold War Museum) and asked the on duty controller to let me know if the 67th ARRS HH-53s were called to service.
By: 6th December 2018 at 09:43 Permalink - Edited 6th December 2018 at 09:45
-I think what surprises me most is that those remains are stored outdoors where any forensic evidence will possibly have deteriorated over time. The Megrahi case has never fully gone away and is presently under review by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission. I know a lot of testing will have been done at the time of the bombing but more might yet need to be done depending on the outcome of that review.
The stuff that has useful forensic material on it is in dry store at Farnborough. This is the material that was left...
By: 6th December 2018 at 14:31 Permalink
-Some swine was selling parts on ebay a few years ago, having nicked them from this compound.
By: 6th December 2018 at 14:59 Permalink
-The yard in question has other aircraft wrecks, some with less that happy stories to tell. Guess that is why they are less than friendly towards people visiting the site. Sadly this news item will only encourage the 'wrong sort' of interest. Wrecks and Relics lists the Whirlwinds as XJ407, XP328 and XP329
By: 7th December 2018 at 00:35 Permalink
-Was this an airfield at some point? two hangars & a control tower..
By: 7th December 2018 at 07:37 Permalink
-A perceptive question ZR! A close neighbour is the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at Coningsby. The 'control tower' is probably more related to the track activities behind the scrapyard, perhaps a go-kart track or driving instructors course.
By: 9th December 2018 at 17:16 Permalink - Edited 9th December 2018 at 17:18
-I was thinking of the building far left by the yellow crane, not the white building by the track... but looking again with my good glasses on I'm not so sure...However, that 2400ft long grass strip (visible on Google Earth, but the bottom of this pic) immediately to the North does look like a runway.
By: 9th December 2018 at 17:24 Permalink
-At some stage the owner Roger Windley had an ex Northolt Whirlwind which flew for a while and also rented out film props .https://forum.keypublishing.com/forum/historic-aviation/54576-westland-whirlwind-har-10-g-bkhc
The story on the Pan Am bits is a re told item in the press from 2007.
By: 9th December 2018 at 22:52 Permalink
-ZR, you’re not seeing RAF Woodhall are you? That’s pretty close too.
By: 10th December 2018 at 04:27 Permalink - Edited 10th December 2018 at 04:28
-Nope, that's off to the North East.
This looks like a grass strip:
53° 7'23.99"N 0°12'47.39"W
By: 10th December 2018 at 13:07 Permalink
-When I was stationed at RAF Coningsby in the late 1970's I was a regular visitor to Roger Windley's scrap yard, as I was building a Triumph based sports car and the yard and helpful and obliging staff provided much of what I needed. Mr Windley had a number of helicopters under covered storage including a small Dutch agricultural type. I seem to remember a small adjacent airstrip. I do remember one of the S.55's appearing at Old Warden once, possibly in the 80's.
The Lockerbie tragedy was a horrible event. But now the quiet storage in rural Lincolnshire of (possibly) secondary wreckage has been sensationalized by a cretinous British newspaper for no other purpose than to sell it's rag with "sensational Aerial photographs".
May the victims rest in peace, because sadly we will be seeing no truth or justice coming out of Libya for a long time to come, Nor the Daily Wail.
John
By: 10th December 2018 at 15:02 Permalink
-Could the type referenced be a Sud-Ouest S.O.1221 Djinn - one is listed in the current Wrecks & Relics as being at this location?
By: 10th December 2018 at 15:39 Permalink
-It could well have been the Djinn as I couldn't quite recall whether it was that or a Kolibri. Also the event I saw the S.55 at could well have been Cranfield as I was a regular attender at the P.F.A's in those days.
John
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By: Newforest - 5th December 2018 at 15:39
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6454701/Chilling-aerial-photos-reveal-forgotten-remains-tragic-Lockerbie-Pan-plane-scrapyard.html
Surprising, but a poignant reminder of this tragedy.