Bristol Evening Post *** Tuesday April 17th 1973

One of the quiet heroines of the aftermath of the Swiss air disaster was today on holiday in Cheddar, one of the villages worst hit by the crash. 

Swiss-born Miss Rebecca Stockli, a doctor’s assistant in Basle, was back in the home where she spent some time as an au-pair girl two years ago. For three days after the tragedy, Rebecca worked almost non-stop as an interpreter alongside the Rev. Ronald Denman, vicar of Cheddar, who flew out to Switzerland to help with the task of identification and to be on hand to comfort relatives. He returned at the weekend bringing Rebecca with him to rest in the quiet of the Vicarage with his family. He said: “From Wednesday until Saturday she acted as interpreter, driver and comforter. She was tremendous.

‘INVALUABLE’ 

“As well as interpreting for me, she helped relatives and talked to officials. She worked from 6 a.m. one morning until about 3 a.m. the next day then on each of following days. Her aid was invaluable to me, to relatives and to people from the Swiss investigation department,” he said. Modestly, Rebecca says she did nothing more than many others of her compatriots “We all tried to do our best. There are a lot of people helping still.” 

Invicta International, owners of Vanguard, the crashed have given her a return ticket and are also providing a car to take her back to London airport when she goes home. Mr. Denman hit back at people who criticised the length of time taken by rescue services to reach the scene of the crash. “They just don’t under-stand the conditions that had to be overcome to reach the scene and the fact that the last part of the journey had to be made overland, away from the roads and though snow more than 18 inches deep.”