In The News

Bristol hit most by air disaster

April 17, 1973

Bristol Evening Post Tuesday April 17th 1973 The official list of victims and survivors of the Swiss air disaster was read today’s meeting of Abridge Rural Council and showed that Bristol suffered more dead than any other place. Council chairman, CIr. John Walter, read out the list. The figures are: Survived Died Abridge 15 12…
Read More
Crash fund may top £20,000 tonight

April 17, 1973

Evening Post, Tuesday April 17th 1973 Crash fund may top £20,000 tonight Gifts pouring in for families bereaved by the Swiss air disaster looks like top- ping £20,000 by tonight. The general launched to cover fund the Axbridge, Cheddar, Congresbury and Wrington areas has now reached £11,085. The people of Basel have contributed more than…
Read More
No ‘grief probe’ in villages

April 17, 1973

Bristol Evening Post Tuesday April 17th 1973 There was relief in four Somerset villages today that they will be able to mourn victims of the Swiss air disaster in private. Strenuous official denials have quelled fears of a psychiatric survey of grief In Axbridge, Cheddar, Congresbury and Wrington. Mr. John Todd, chairman of Abridge Parish Council,…
Read More
Crash fund may top £20,000 tonight

April 17, 1973

Bristol Evening Post *** Tuesday April 17th 1973 Gifts pouring in for families bereaved by the Swiss air disaster looks like topping £20,000 by tonight. The general launched fund to cover the Axbridge, Cheddar, Congresbury and Wrington areas has now reached £11,085. The people of Basle have contributed more than £5,625 and money pouring into…
Read More
Victims are flown back

April 17, 1973

Bristol Evening Post *** Tuesday April 17th 1973 The 106 victims of the Swiss plane disaster were flown back to Bristol today a week after they set off on what was to have been a happy day out. The bodies were flown into Lulsgate Airport from Basle in a Vanguard of Invicta International airlines. Funeral services will be…
Read More
The quiet heroine holidays ‘at home’

April 17, 1973

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…
Read More
AIR CRASH PUZZLES

April 15, 1973

Sunday Telegraph April 15th 1973. By JOHN SMALLDON AMONG the many questions still unanswered following crash last Tuesday’s of Vanguard Oscar Papa at Hochwald in Switzerland, two seem to be most relevant to investigators probing the cause of the disaster. How could an aircraft, as is usual when so near to touching down, under the strictest…
Read More
146 in Bristol plane crash

April 15, 1973

Bristol Evening Post ** Tuesday April 10th 1973 Day trip ends in snow plunge-‘some injured’ A Vanguard charter plane from Bristol, with 139 passengers on board, crashed in severe snowstorm near Base airport in Switzerland this afternoon. First provisional official reports were there was an unspecified number of survivors. NEWS FLASH Swiss news agency ATS…
Read More
Day out for alr crash orphans

April 14, 1973

By John Christopher, Daily Express Saturday 14th April 1973 THE ORPHANS of the Swiss air disaster were whisked away from the heart-breaking atmosphere of two motherless villages yesterday. Forty children from Axbridge and Cheddar in Somerset were taken to the seaside cinema at Weston-super-Mare to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The day-trip tragedy,…
Read More
The snow melts to reveal its secrets

April 14, 1973

Source – Bristol Evening Post ©copyright [1973] Bristol Evening Post From MALCOLM SMITH Hochwald, Saturday The snow is melting now from the tracks leading to the crash scene of Vanguard Oscar Pappa where I stand and contemplate in silence. Overhead, a helicopter carrying members of the investigation team flits into view momentarily between the tips of…
Read More