Jaguar XX762 on Beinn a Chleibh
Photo of XX762 from Peter Boschert's slide
collection as shown on Airfighters.com.
Crashed on the 27 November 1979 while on a training flight with another Jaguar. The two Jaguars were heading north towards Bridge of Orchy with the intention of turning west at the top of the Glen towards Oban. In the area of Ben Lui low cloud was encountered and the Lead Jaguar told the Number two to pull up and abort. On emerging out of the top of the clouds the number two could see no sign of the leader and radio contact had been lost¹.
F100 Super Sabre 55-3671 on Beinn Donachan
Photo of 55-3671 taken at Alconbury on 18th
May 1958, original author unknown, via Wing attack Plan R, Flickr.
F-100D 55-3671 departed RAF
Weathersfield as the lead aircraft of a fight of two similar aircraft on
the 14th of April 1960 at 08.13 hrs.
The mission was a planned
combat profile mission with a simulated low-level attack on a railway
bridge near Dalmally. The flight made a normal climb to 27,000 feet after
take off then a descent was made near Whitehaven.
The flight continued through rain
showers until the target was reached at the north end of Loch Awe.Upon
seeing the target a join up was called for over the radio and after this
clouds were entered.
The wingman began to experience
difficulty in maintaining position and forward pitch control and trim were
required. The condition became so severe that the wingman was forced to
break off.
Approximately 20 seconds after
entering the cloud , around 10.15am , 55-3671 was seen to leave the bottom
of the clouds in a steep dive and hit the side of a hill , killing the
pilot
1st Lt. Richard Warren Kesson².
1st Lt Richard Warren Kesson.(photo
courtesy Jim Kesson+Kat Chandler)
In July 2018 I returned to Glen Strae with the Son and Daughter of the F100 Pilot. Jim and Kat had been searching for some time for the location of their Dad's plane crash and contacted me for information after finding my website. Jim and Kat travelled over to Scotland from the USA and I arranged to meet them and with the help of some Dalmally locals, who arranged some Landrovers and the necessary permissions to transport Jim and Kat to within 1/2 mile of the location, we were able to get them to the crashsite.
above and below:-Jim Kesson and Kat Chandler, the man in the deerstalker hat is Donald, a local Farmer who supplied the 4x4's to transport Jim and Kat to the crashsite. Behind Kat in both photos are Elaine and David, two other Dalmally locals who helped arrange the visit.
Panavia Tornado ZE982 in Glen Kinglass.
ZE982 taxying out at RAF Waddington while taking part in
exercise Indra Danush in July 2007.
Jerry Gunner from Lincoln, UK, CC BY 2.0
Crashed on 2nd July 2009 while flying as the lead of a pair of Tornado F3's on a routine training sortie from RAF Leuchars. While flying at low level through a series of Glens the two Tornados flew along the route of the A83 but just north of the 'Rest and be Thankfull' ZE982 failed to make a sharp left turn and impacted the slope on the northern side of Glen Kinglass³.
above and below:-Two photos of the initial impact crater from the service enquiry taken at the time of the crash. An image of a Tornado has been superimposed on the image above to show how ZE982 impacted the hill.
References:-
1--https://heavywhalley.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/the-jaguar-crash-on-ben-lui-november-1979/
2--Information courtesy of Alan Leishman, Dumfries and Galloway Aviation
Museum.
3--Service Enquiry via Stuart Whittaker.