It overlooks the first team pitch of a rugby
club in a small Suffolk town. The 18 were sportsmen, amateur rugby union players ranging from new young participants to the experienced former players but bonded in a passion
for the game, its physicality, camaraderie and heritage.
David was a cousin of
my late father.
I had met him a few times when as a family we had stayed on or
near their farm in the beautiful countryside around Dulverton, Somerset.
To us
Thomson siblings David was a bit of a hero.
The strongest memory I have is of
him in the milking parlour on the farm in charge of the eighty or so dairy herd. We, that
is my two sisters and myself, watched in amazement as he attached and removed
in succession the milking apparatus from the productively swollen udders of the
Freisian cows.
The combination of the noise of machines and from large beasts of varying
temperament but above all the smells were both fascinating and fearful to us,
as townies and of sheltered upbringing.
Common to
those working the land he also knew the names of all of the herd by sight,
Daisy, Buttercup, Rose and so on although to us they all looked identical in
their black and white hides. He would take pleasure in lifting us up onto the back of the more docile amongst the milkers.
We were, at that time, all under the age of 12 but
David was older, in his early twenties with a promising future ahead of him. He wanted to be a veterinary,
naturally from his agricultural background and his studies had taken him to college in that
small town.
His love of rugby brought him to what was an extra curricula
activity in the town team. The other abiding memory that I have, and I was only
11 at the time, was my father answering a phone call to our house with the news
that David had died in a plane crash.
He was one of 346 souls who perished
in what was, at the time the worst air accident in history.
Of course he should
not have been on that aircraft but events and circumstances transpired that he
was.
David and his rugby team mates had been in Paris on the 2nd
March 1974 to watch a Home Championship match between old enemies, France and
England. The game ended 12-12, perhaps a bit of a disappointment but the trip
will have been one of exuberant spirits and banter.
The return flight,
originally with British European Airways was disrupted by industrial action by
airport staff at the London destination and so David, his teammates and some
200 BEA passengers were transferred to a flight that had just arrived from
Ankara heading for the UK.
Turkish Airlines TK981 was a wide bodied McDonnell
Douglas DC-10, only a few years old.
In the stopover at Orly Airport it was
loaded up with the new passengers and their baggage before taking off at 12.32pm, the 3rd of March.
The climb to around 12000 feet was uneventful but then there was a large
explosion as the left side cargo door blew out ,breached the fuselage and the resultant
collapse in the cabin floor led to catastrophic failure of the hydraulic
controls.
There are indications that Captain Berkoz and his crew regained some
control of the plane in its rapid and violent descent as it seemed to level out
at low altitude but it was too late.
Rescue teams arriving at Ermenonville
Forest witnessed a scorched and obliterated scene. There were no survivors.
The
shady and dappled woodland trails in that place about 40 miles north east of Paris
lead to a stone memorial to the victims.
Air accident investigations showed
that the cause of the crash was a combination of human error and avoidable design flaws.
McDonnel Douglas were well aware of the weaknesses of cargo hold doors
on the DC-10 from stringent tests which showed failure of the locking mechanism
under relatively low air pressures but critically from an incident in the air in
1972 when the same sequence of events had nearly caused an Stateside aircraft
to crash.
Documented fixes to resolve the technical weaknesses were left to a
gentleman’s agreement between the manufacturers and the Federal Air Authority.
They were not implemented across the fleet and specifically to TK981.
The
measures and safeguards that were subsequently introduced following the
revelations and scandal of the crash contributed to much improved air safety for the benefit of millions of
passengers but this will have been of little comfort to the families and friends
of the 346 victims.
I often think about David and what he would have gone on to
do in his life had not it been tragically cut short at the age of 22.
 |
| Memorial at Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club, Suffolk |
4 comments:
My father, Tom, sent me your post about David. I am David’s niece and was born two years after he died. It was lovely to read about your memories of him milking the cows. Dad lives down near Dulverton now in the same property.
I seem to remember two little girls speaking Czech whilst playing in the farmyard in the 1970's during a family holiday when we camped in the fields or stayed with your Grandparents. Are you Camilla or Miriam or have I got the names wrong? I am trying to research my Gran's side of the family, of course the sister of Cecilia, as I did not really quiz her or my Father (died 2011) about the Scottish ancestors. Do you or your Dad have any genealogical records?
Yes, we are related. Can I send my e mail address via your Dad to make a more formal contact?
Yes it’s Miriam. We also have a brother called Tom but he was born in 1981. My dad’s email is tom.cain@newcastle.ac.uk and he said to pass it along to you
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