RAF Fatality 1970s
 

Grateful if anybody can help with a question that SWBO has asked again this evening, she's been mentioning it for several years. She tells me that she was at school with a Stuart or Stewart Fraser who was killed in an RAF flying accident in the 1970s (her memory on this is vague and it could be the late 60's). She hails from Aberdeen and the school was Robert Gordon's College. Stuart/Stewart, I'm told, was originally from Mombasa in Kenya and the accident, she tells me, was in Cambridgeshire. I've been searching the internet for several hours but cannot find an accident that matches the date or name.

Can anybody help with this please?

Stu Fraser was the Navigator on XV 198 which crashed at Colerne in Sept. 1973.
We were on 48 together at RAF Changi and then back at RAF Lyneham.
If you care to trawl through the 'Global Aviation Hercules thread you will come across a pic of our Herc at Christmas Island. The chap standing under the a/c with his back to us is Stu.
Hope this helps.

Now that you have a date and location, the RAF Air Historical Branch is probably worth contacting: Air Historical Branch - Home

Previous PPRuNe thread on the crash here: http://www.pprune.org/military-aviat...rn-1973-a.html

Many thanks
 

Many thanks for the information. The wife's recollection of the accident occurring in Cambridgeshire set me looking in the wrong place. I will follow-up on the links to get more detail.

I assume it's the chap who appears here (in bold, indicating notified as deceased): Robert Gordon's College Class of 1965-66

although Stuart Fraser is a fairly common name in northeast Scotland, so there may well have been more than one of them at Robert Gordon's over the years.

Again many thanks
 

That looks right, the wife would have been 16 - 17 in 65 - 66. She's also had a look through the names and recognises several of them. Again many thanks for the information.

The attached contemporary press cutting gives details of the crew.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...psaxb9g3mw.jpg

Thanks again
 

Once again many thanks for the information. The wife is happier now that she knows the full story of this tragedy.