B29 Wreckage Site. Memorial Tribute
 

This is well worth watching. Very moving.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...shire-46073305

The link is to the BBC, but click on the "360 degree images" and make sure your sound is on. An eyewitness account.

Thanks for posting about this event.

I used to walk around the area a lot in my younger days and there's no shortage, sadly, of wreckage across the National Park. In fact, it's very difficult not to encounter some irrespective of the route(s) you choose.

I've always been intrigued however, and this is not being disparaging to those killed or injured as to why, over the years, this prominent geographical feature has been the site of so many accidents.

There are scores of aircraft accident sites in the Peak District. Many of the tragedies occurred due to navigational errors. IFR navigation aids were woefully inadequate in bygone years and a lack of understanding of upper wind strengths put aircraft well off track.

This used to be part of my "patch" and from personal experience, flying over the Peak district, especially in poor weather and/or by night, is even today not to be taken lightly. I know the site in question; various folk have been laying memorial tributes there for many years.

The lack of nav aids and the wx would clearly be contributory factors but the number of tragedies has always seemed disproportionate to me ......this isn't some "conspiracy theory" I hasten to add, to other regions of the UK.

This list makes for interesting reading on the subject....

https://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.c...peak-district/

I always thought the clue was in the name.

I suppose that just about every bit of high ground everywhere has had an aircraft crash into it at some tine. When I lived in Redhill there was a clearly marked - by the lack of trees - site on nearby Reigate Hill where a returning B-17 had flown into it during a foggy day.

wingsmuseum.co.uk

I suspect that there may have been more crashes in the Peak District than (say) the Lake District because there were more airfields in the East of England than the West, or in Scotland, and thus more aircraft likely to run into high ground.