THE SITE TODAY
St Boniface Down, Ventnor, Isle of Wight
Please treat the area with respect.
This is on National Trust and private land. Should you wish to visit, please keep to the footpath.
It is the highest point on the Island.
This image has 'hotspots' Move the pointer over the photograph and where it changes shape, click to see more detail of that area. The detail pictures are shown on the lower part of this page anyway but this may help to put the incident into perspective.
The site today - the NATS radar station and the site of the old chain home wartime radar post that was a central part of the air defence of Great Britain. This was 'Ventnor Radar' of Battle of Britain fame. The Dakota impacted at the foot of one of the old bunkers forming the base of the famous aerial arrays used during the War. Most of the wreckage came to rest much further up the hill at the very highest point on the island straddling one of the internal roads on the RAF site. You can just make out the bunkers between the two right hand towers - this is the crash location. The original wartime chain home radar towers were removed in 1957 although the site remained an operational radar station.
Another view of Coombe Bottom, - with a slight mist, the sea is almost obscured. On 6th May 1962, with 50 yards ( or less ) visibility, they didn't have a chance. Another 60 feet higher and they might have made it, although there would have been a mass of aerials, bunkers and guy wires blocking the way.
40 years later, three concrete posts with slightly different tops are the only clue to a tragedy on that foggy Sunday afternoon..... the point of initial impact now hidden behind a clump of bushes.....
...... and further along the path of the aircraft, a ring of heather where no bracken or bushes grow .....
...and on to the final resting place of the wreckage where poignantly there is a huge circle of heathers and wild flowers that still mark the site of the tragedy......
..... the gates that delayed the rescuers ....
The final resting place of the wreckage is on private land and access must be with the land owner's permission. There is nothing of the plane left - the site was left untouched for a long time but them every last scrap of wreckage was cleared away by the authorities. There is no reason to visit the actual spot although you can locate the impact point by walking around the seaward side of the site perimeter fence. There are some signs of the initial impact lower down the hill below the path.
Please do NOT leave the public footpath and respect the site.
Edwardian Ventnor - the Down rises like a wall from the sea. Coombe Bottom is on the valley left - the crew expected to see the entire town and more as they approached the coast.
Photo source unknown
For more information on Ventnor Radar in the early post war years, try this fascinating site - click here: RADAR
(off site link)
