Member-only story
The Flight That Never Returned
A true story of a mystery man who flew into Glenforsa Airstrip.
When you walk into the Glenforsa Hotel, a brass plaque on the gate informs guests that the airfield at the back of the Hotel was built by the Royal Engineers in 1965.
As a kid, I watched them build the airstrip. Occasionally, I was allowed to help. I sat on the tractor and guided the driver up and down. My name isn’t on the plaque, though. The airstrip was built not to bring guests to the Hotel but to complement the cottage hospital in Salen; its main reason was to support Mull’s only fixed-wing air ambulance.
At weekends, I waited for someone who needed major surgery, had fallen off the mountain, or had been mauled by the Tobermory cat!
Sadly, for a boy who loved aeroplanes, the daytime Scottish Air Ambulance only handled, on average, one patient a month at the airstrip.
Navy Sea Kings have occasionally evacuated at nighttime, and over 400 patients have been airlifted from Mull. Dad would get me up in the middle of the night if he knew the helicopter was coming. Dad had a shortwave radio because he was a seaman and heard SOS calls. He’d wrap me up in a blanket, still in my PJs and put me in the Landrover.
