In The News

The anguish of Axbridge

April 11, 1973

Daily Express Staff Reporter Wednesday April 11th 1973 THIS IS a disaster area, the village square at Axbridge, Somerset. As pretty as ever it was, sparkling in the after- noon sunlight. But life here will never be quite the same again. For just as surely as if hit by an avalanche, the crushing tragedy of…
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Grief comes to five villages

April 11, 1973

By John King, John Davies, John Christopher. Daily Express Wednesday April 11th 1973 FIVE VILLAGES in Somerset lost their wives and mothers yesterday when a day-trip airliner crashed in Switzerland, killing 106 of the 145 people on board. Names of survivors came in last night as husbands who had been baby-sitting waitedat Bristol’s Lulsgate Airport…
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34 SURVIVORS NAMED

April 11, 1973

Daily Telegraph April 11th 1973 Invicta International Airlines said in London last night that 39 of the 139 passengers and six crew of the Vanguard Survived the crash. The following list of 34 of the survivors, with five names to be added later, was issued Not seriously Ill: Miss J. Besley, Mrs J. Bowen. Master R.…
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APPALLING WEATHER Within landing limits

April 11, 1973

Daily Telegraph April 11th 1973 OUR AIR CORRESPONDENT writes: -The weather conditions at Base were appalling and this may have contributed to the cause of the crash. Snow is one of the worst conditions for pilots. It is confusing and disorientating. But the Vanguard pilot should have been able to cope. The Vanguard has no automatic…
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The 39 who escaped

April 11, 1973

Report in the Daily Express April 11th 1973 THESE ARE the survivors of the Invicta crash as issued late last night by the company Miss J. Besley, Mrs. J. Bowen, Master R. Bowen, Mrs. M. Carver, Mrs. S. Cole (released from hospital), Mrs. I. Hooper. Mr. B. Jones (released). Mrs. M. Sampson, Mrs. K. Scott,…
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VILLAGES WAIT IN FEAR

April 11, 1973

Daily Telegraph April 11th 1973 By Christopher Bramwell By AS details of the Swiss air crash and names of the dead filtered through, people in the four Somerset villages from which most of the victims came were numbed last night. In Abridge, whose population is only about 1,200. it was feared that over 50 young mothers,…
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Day-trip wives and mothers killed as plane crashes in blizzard

April 11, 1973

Daily Telegraph April 11th 1973 By Terence Shaw, in Hochwald, near Basle. Day-trip wives and mothers killed as plane crashes in blizzard 106 DIE IN SHOPPERS’ SPECIAL Rescuers brave 3ft drifts MORE than 100 Britons, most of them women from four Somerset villages, died yesterday as the Vanguard airliner taking them on £16 day shopping trip…
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Travel firm’s leader is in hospital

April 11, 1973

Western Daily Press April 11th 1973 By Garth Pearce THE FATAL flight was organised by Unicorn Travel, of Park Street, Bristol It was just another of the routine day return i excursions from Bristol to Switzerland. which it has been running since August. The cost was £16.50. And the advertising leaflet for the trip said “Let…
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Victims’ MP calls for full report

April 11, 1973

Western Daily Press April 11th 1973 By Preston Witts AEROSPACE Minister Mr. Michael Heseltine will be questioned about the air disaster in the Commons today, Mr. Jerry Wiggin. Tory MP for Weston-super-Mare, the constituency of most of the crash victims. had put down a private notice question. He will ask Mr. Heseltine for a full statement…
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LAUGHS ON THE COACH

April 11, 1973

Western Daily Press April 11th 1973 COACH owner Mr. Oliver Lyons, of Blagdon, took 90 of the passengers to Bristol’s Lulsgate airport. He was to have returned for them at 11.30 p.m. last night. “It is heartbreaking,’ he said at Blagdon parish council meeting last night. “so as I drove happy around Axbridge, Cheddar, Wrington. and…
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