Originally Posted by
robertfauchon
I remeber this incident very well. I was due to come on shift at Eastern Radar that night. You are all right it was afilthy night. I had been visiting a friend in East Wretham and needed to take a shortcut through the battle area to make it on time. I knew the battle area was inactive that night and got the fright of my life when the skies lit up with a huge explosion. I hurried on through, but of course, it wasn't in the battle area the explosion occurred. I got to Eastern in time, only to see the place in panic as everyone tried to unravel the sequence of events. I worked all night trying to reconstruct the recordings and must have gone through miles of tape on the MARS. machine. The last controller to have contacted the Victor at the hand-over, was physically sick. It wasn't his fault, but everyone took it personally and we were all devastated. God bless them all especially the crews and families.
Its 30 miles from the training area to Holt where the collision occurred. I'm surprised you saw the explosion if the weather was as filthy as you say. Perhaps it was the electrical storm you saw?