Today marks the 30th anniversary of a tragic RAF plane crash on Harris.
All ten crewmen on the Shackleton Mk2 were killed when it collided into the cloud covered summit of Maodal, an 823 foot high hill by Northon in South Harris on 30 April 1990.
The crash left six widows and 12 children.
Wreckage was scattered around the hillside. Local emergency services attended and a RAF mountain rescue team was flown from Kinloss but there were no survivors.
Arrangements by the Harris community to hold a memorial service today were called off due to the coronavirus outbreak. As a tribute, a local piper played a lament at the base of the hill while the flag on the Harris war memorial flew at half mast.
Their bodies were recovered from the hill by a Sea King helicopter to Stornoway and later flown to crew’s home base at Lossiemouth by aircraft. Following a private ceremony on the airbase, some 2500 servicemen and civilians lined the route as the hearses containing their coffins passed.
The Shackleton -
The crew abandoned the approach due to poor weather and radioed they were turning right and climbing. Three minutes after their last transmission, the aircraft struck the hillside about 30 ft below the summit.
Colin Kinnear
Anniversary of Shackleton air crash on Harris
30 April 2020
Memorial to the Shackleton crew
SSgt Jose Lopez/ USAF
A similar RAF Lossiemouth Shackleton