On the east side of the dike.

A rectangular tablet set into a dry stone wall with some of the wreckage from the aircraft. The plaque is inscribed in English in incised and black lettering. It is unveiled on September 21, 1952, by Mrs. Evelyn McMillan of Brockloch. Apart from a couple of tiny fragments, nothing remains visible at the actual crash site. The photo of Brockloch Tower taken from the memorial is provided below. Getting the view means that you are very close to the memorial.

On July 7, 1951, KB-29P 44-83950 had taken off from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk at 09:17 (BST) for a Radar Navigation Flight which was to be followed by 4 hours of Air to Air refueling practice with a Boeing B-50. At 11:03 the aircraft was in contact with the controller at Prestwick, having entered the Scottish Flight Information Region, the pilot reported they were at an altitude of ~14,500ft in visual conditions. Only 7 minutes later the aircraft was seen by witnesses on the ground descending out of the cloud at 1,500 to 2,000ft over Carsphairn on an NNW course. They stated that the engines sounded different to the aircraft which normally over-flew the area. The aircraft then turned onto a SE course before stalling and entering a spin from which it did not recover before impacting the ground in a deep gully at the edge of a field. The fuel tanks, containing an estimated 8,000 US Gallons exploded and completely destroyed the aircraft, scattering it over a considerable area. All 11 crew members on board were killed:

1st Lt Joseph A. O'Leary, pilot,

1st Lt George Merrill Foote, co-pilot,

1st Lt Claude Jacques Hayden Jr., navigator,

S/Sgt Noel M. Poppoff, flight engineer,

Cpt Tennant A. Metz, radar operator,

Cpl John B. Simpson, radio operator,

Cpl John P. Finnegan, scanner,

1st Lt Jack W. Kern, boom instructor,

Sgt Henry H. Hill, boom operator,

S/Sgt Wallace L. Scott, boom operator,

Cpl Reginald Y. Russell, boom operator.

Source of information: www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk, Imperial War Museum War Memorials Register, http://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk, aviation-safety.net

Source of photos: www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk

IN MEMORY OF

THOSE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN

AMERICAN AIR CRASH 7TH JULY 1951

ERECTED BY THE PEOPLE OF CARSPHAIRN

AND FRIENDS.