Image: Memorial to the Aer Lingus crash of January 1952 - 1784244

Description: Memorial to the passengers and crew of Aer Lingus crash of 10 January 1952, 4 km from Plas Gwynant, Gwynedd, Great Britain. The Douglas DC-3 (named 'Saint Kevin') owned by Aer Lingus left RAF Northolt, London at 17:25 on 10th January, 1952 on a flight to Dublin. Radio contact with the plane was lost shortly after the pilot requested permission from Dublin control at around 19:15 to descend from 6500 ft to 4500 ft. A board of inquiry came to the conclusion that the descending plane encountered a "powerful down-current of air on the lee side of Snowdon which forced the aircraft down into an area of very great turbulence .." which led the pilot, Capt Keohane, to "lose control.." Even in mid summer, the Cwm Edno bog at 1.500ft, is an inhospitable place. The conditions on that night in January, 1952 were absolutely atrocious. I remember at the time Police Constable Jones, stationed at Deiniolen, describing the scene of utter devastation which met officers who had had to climb for almost an hour to the site from the Llyn Gwynant road, how sections of the wreckage and many bodies had been sucked into the muddy bog and how a little child's doll had on impact been thrown clear of the burning wreckage, something which upset the men greatly.
Title: Memorial to the Aer Lingus crash of January 1952 - 1784244
Credit: From this image at geograph.org.uk; transferred by User:RHaworth using geograph_org2commons.
Author: Eric Jones
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0
License: CC BY-SA 2.0
License Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Attribution Required?: Yes