HAPTON COLLIERY DISASTER AIR CRASH
HAPTON COLLIERY DISASTER


IN COMMEMORATION OF THE MINERS IN THE BURNLEY AREA
WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN THE 1962
HAPTON VALLEY COLLIERY DISASTER
SPANISH AIR CRASH

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Harry and Constance Adcroft, Brownhill
Avenue, Burnley |
Arthur, Patricia and Ian Walmsley, Milner
Street, Burnley
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also from East Lancashire but not on this memorial
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This memorial remembers those from Burnley and Padiham who lost their lives in the Dan-Air disaster in 1970.
All 112 people on board the plane were killed, including several families, children as young as six and four players from the successful Britannia Wanderers amateur football team from the pub in Guy Street, Padiham of the same name.
They were on a Clarksons holiday and included 45 holidaymakers from Burnley, Nelson, Barnoldswick, Worsthorne and Ramsbottom, who had set off from Manchester Airport on 3rd July for Barcelona.
Under Spanish Law all the victims had to be buried within 48 hours, so they were buried in a mass grave near the mountain village of Arbucias in northern Spain, and consequently none of the relatives were able to attend.
An official investigation into the disaster showed the plane, had flown a different route than usual because of air traffic control delays in the Paris area. At 5.59pm local time it began its approach to Barcelona, it was directed towards a beacon at Sabadell and mistakenly reported passing it. Coincidentally another plane flew over this beacon at the same time leading air traffic controllers to believe the Dan Air flight had passed the beacon. The controller cleared the plane to descend to 2,800 feet but at approximately 6.05pm the aircraft struck beech trees on the north-east slopes of the Les Angudes peak and crashed into the hillside.
There is also a memorial in Memorial Park, Padiham
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