Dealing with loss and Trauma the early days

After the call out on Ben Nevis in 1973 where three climbers killed it was very traumatic after a big fall. As a 18 year old I found it was hard to take on the horror of it all. I was put on shift afterwords for the whole weekend and no break at all. Then ten days later the team was called out to an aircraft crash near Dornie at Kintail. This is what the team was for and we were alerted just after lunch on the 12 Sept 1972.  Information in these days was very scant; no mobile phones all updates were given on the move by High Frequency communications in our converted land rover Control wagon. It was a blue light drive terrifying to Dornie where we were met by the Police. A Harriers GR1  XV 799 had crashed, killing the pilot.

A  Royal Navy helicopter were called and took the casualty away from the scene but we had to do crash guard and search the area. This was my first aircraft crash, I could not believe that there was so little left of a huge aircraft, just a smouldering hole in the ground. It was a horrible job that i was to do on many occasions the smells of an aircraft crash stay with you as does picking up human remains.

When an aircraft hits the ground at 300 – 400 mph there can be little left but pieces of jagged metal, spread over a wide area. In addition many of  these sites are very dangerous and only a few of the team were used to search the area. They located several items including a phial of morphine from a first aid kit on the aircraft. The team stayed until the Navy Salvage team arrived and handed over. In the meantime the area was secured with the help of the Police and sketch maps and photos were taken to assist the Board Of Enquiry. As the area was fairly low down the team were released back from the incident and drove back to Kinloss, where I was in for trouble! Is this worth the hassle I thought.

My boss told me on my return next day that I was to be disciplined for disobeying an order and going on the callout. I tried to explain that it was a Military aircraft and that was our job. The pilot killed was RAF, who we had been told was going to be the new Station Commander at Lossiemouth.

He was having none of it, I was in trouble for doing my job. But that was it in these days it soon but got sorted but you don’t need this.

Gordon Turnbull is a British psychiatrist and expert on post traumatic stress disorder. He is the lead trauma consultant at the Nightingale Hospital in London, visiting professor at the University of Chester, and Consultant Advisor in Psychiatry to the Civil Aviation Authority...

These were the days before there was any training on dealing with tragedy and the effect on all of us. I was not in a position to say anything at my level but had nightmares even then. You could not tell anyone you were on your own. Even to teammates there seemned to be a silence to me it was a hard time for many years. I still live with it sadly it was constant trauma I hoped this would change over the years. It took a long time.