Category: Newspaper Reports

  • Mums’ day trip which devastated families right across the West.

    Mums’ day trip which devastated families right across the West.

    The West Country Times Tuesday April 5, 2016 It’s over 40 years ago since the air crash that left hundreds of West Country families in mourning for mothers, daughters, grandmothers, aunties and nieces. An English oak tree in a pine forest on a Swiss mountain marks the spot of the tragic plane crash on April…

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  • Pilgrimage to remember luckless 108 victims of the flight to disaster

    Pilgrimage to remember luckless 108 victims of the flight to disaster

    Western Daily Press, Wednesday April 9, 2003 Thirty years ago, an aircraft carrying Somerset mums on a day trip to Switzerland hit a mountain, killing 108 passengers and crew. Today, the Western Daily Press can exclusively reveal the crash was a needless waste of life and should never have happened.  ROGER TAVENER reports  In a…

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  • United by Love

    United by Love

    Daily Mirror September 26, 1973 A couple united by tragedy share joy of a new love. He is John Newell, whose wife and two children died in a plane crash She is the 20-year-old Swiss Salvation Army girl who comforted him. Now the couple, pictured at John’s home in Redfield, Bristol, plan to marry in…

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  • Plane tragedy husband to wed again

    Plane tragedy husband to wed again

    By GRAEME BOWD, Daily Mail, Wednesday September 26th 1973 JOHN NEWELL lost his family last April when an airliner taking West Country women and children to Switzerland on a day trip crashed in a snowstorm near Basle killing 108 people. But now, out of that tragedy, a new love has been born.  For John Newell…

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  • Die Katastrophe von Hochwald

    Die Katastrophe von Hochwald

    This report was in a Swiss magazine has been first scanned and then translated from German so there are errors. But reading this account, including the mistakes, you get a different perspective to the British press stories.. The blind landing approach ended with death, tears and mourning. The unlucky plane “Invicta” Vanguard G-AXOP, which crashed…

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  • Three English Villages Sadly bury the Victims of Swiss Air Disaster

    Three English Villages Sadly bury the Victims of Swiss Air Disaster

    New York Times April 20, 1973 Women from this and six other communities nestling in the Mendip Hills of southwest England died on a charter flight to Switzerland that the tourist brochure described as a journey to “the fairy tale country for the day of your dreams.” They were headed for a Swiss spring fair.…

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  • Official lost of the dead and survivors

    Official lost of the dead and survivors

    Weston Mercury & Somerset Herald April 20th 1973 THE FOLLOWING is the list of the dead and survivors of the crash issued from the information centre at Axbridge:  THE DEAD  Weston: Mrs. K. M. Jenkins, Moorland Road; Mrs. B. M. Moore, 11 Selbourne Road; Mrs. Road. M. Moore, 11 Broadoak  Congresbury: Miss K. E. M.…

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  • Church packed for memorial service 

    Church packed for memorial service 

    Weston Mercury & Somerset Herald, April 20th 1973 More than 700 people packed St. Andrew’s parish church at Congresbury for a memorial service for the victims of the Swiss air dis- aster. Extra chairs were brought into the aisles, many stood in the porch, and others heard the service relayed in the refectory or on…

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  • 100 plane crash victims named 

    100 plane crash victims named 

    Weston Mercury & Somerset Herald April 20th 1973 Over the past few days the Evening Post has received many requests for names of those who lost their lives in the Swiss air crash.  Last night, the first official list of 100 victims was issued. It was:  Cathleen Atwell Davis (71) • Linda (66) • Davis…

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  • Village funerals for Swiss crash victims

    Village funerals for Swiss crash victims

    Daily Telegraph April 13th FUNERAL services for the victims of the Swiss air crash- flown home yesterday- will be held this week in Somerset villages. In Axbridge a service will be held tomorrow for 16 of the dead, some of them from Cheddar.Thirteen of the victims will be buried in a mass grave and three…

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