Return to site of air tragedy

THE last survivor . . . Professor Stephen Evans

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THE only survivor of a plane crash that could yield a clue to the mystery man found dead on Saddleworth Moor last year is to make a poignant visit to the crash site this weekend.

Professor Stephen Evans was five years old when the BEA Dakota DC-3 ploughed into Indians Head at Dovestone, Greenfield.

Twenty-four crew and passengers died after the flight from Belfast to Manchester hit the local landmark on August 19, 1949.

The dead included Prof Evans' brother Roger (two).

Prof Evans, (72), one of three children who survived the crash, was rescued from the shattered wreckage by volunteers who formed a human chain to save the injured and retrieve the bodies.

Now, he is planning to return to Saddleworth for the first time since the tragedy with the hope of piecing together memories from the scene.

An expert in the safety of medicines, he lives in Southampton and works part time at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Recalling his ordeal, he said: "My recollection was there were two people who rescued me, but I've no real memory of them.

"They might have been Scouts - I was made an honorary member of an Oldham Scout Group afterwards."

Of the crash itself, he said: "I remember saying to my mother Ruth just beforehand: 'It's very foggy outside.' She replied: 'No, that's cloud.'

"But we were both right. Next, I remember waking up strapped into the seat next to my mother and most of the plane seemed to be to my right.

"My mother said later she did not recover consciousness until she was in a cubicle in the hospital.

"I recall my father, Jim, crawling up on his hands and knees repeating, 'We must get out of here before the tanks go up'.

"He had no memory of anything from getting on the bus at Nutts Corner Airport Belfast to go to the plane until eight days afterwards.

" I remember being carried down the hills, in particular being passed from one to another person over some difficult to traverse rocks.

" I was taken to a farmhouse ... I think I can picture the place with a central door and possibly a porch.

"The lady of the house offered me tea, which I refused, but when the ambulance came I wouldn't get in until I had a cup of tea.

"I have no memory of the journey to hospitalbut various memories in hospital, including my sixth birthday about three weeks after the crash."

He added: 'My younger brother was killed in the crash but my parents and I were the only family with more than one survivor."

Meantime, Prof Evans has spoken to detectives at Oldham CID working on unravelling the mystery surrounding the body found on Saddleworth Moor on December 12 last year.

In January, Det Sgt John Coleman, who is leading the inquiry, said: "The unidentified man is of an age that ties in with the crash itself. But this is just one of many lines of inquiry."

The man was 6ft 1in tall, white, of slim build, with receding grey hair, blue eyes and large nose that might have been broken.

A report later found that the Dakota crash was caused by "an error in navigation, incorrect approach procedure and failure to check the position of the aircraft accurately before the descent from a safe height".

Prof Evans, whose family later moved to Dorset, said: "I have no current connection to Manchester but I would like to visit the site."

Det Sgt Coleman said: "Thankfully, Professor Evans is alive and well."