B-17 41-9051 ''Flaming Mayme''

 On the 14th September  1943 this aircraft crashed near the summit of the 3054ft high Skiddaw mountain.
The aircraft was enroute from RAF Alconbury , which by then had passed to the USAF (with whom  it still operates as a  non- flying base), to RAF Turnhouse near Edinburgh .
Ostensibly it was on a navigation exercise but carrying 4 passengers of fairly high rank and being flown by the Commanding Officer of 813th Bomb Group. The reality may or may not be a navigation exercise but it is well known that many members of the USAF, quite understandably, had a liking for the odd bottle of whiskey and any chance to get up to Speyside to aquire a few cases for the mess would be taken .
This of course may not be the case this time but it seems equally as likely as a nav exercise with those passengers on board.
There could of course been a military reason for the flight and the passengers that were on board but if this was the case why not say so instead of claiming it was just a navigation training flight .

Regardless of what the truth for the flight is the fact remains that somewhere enroute they became lost even if they did not realise they had done so. The flight routed across Yorkshire managed to collide   with Skiddaw , at the time before the boundary changes of the 1970's part of Cumberland, and caught fire , the main body of the aircraft with its occupants being completely burned out .


The crew were

Capt. William C. Anderson Pilot and  CO 813th Bomb Squadron

1st Lt. Robert J.Sudbury Co-pilot

Capt. Raymond R. Oeftiger Nav

2nd Lt. Raymond F. Diltz BA

S/Sgt. Bryson R. Hills Eng

S/Sgt. Robert L. Jacobsen R/Op

 and the passengers were

Maj. Thomas C. Henderson

Maj. Henry B. Williams

1st Lt. Clarence H. Ballagh

1st Lt. Theodore R. Doe


A tragic event . It was a number of days before the bodies could all be recovered due to the severe terrain and weather conditions. The aircraft wreckage  was  recovered later by  No. 83 MU of the RAF.

All that remains now are small fragments of wreckage scattered over much of the scree . We found three  small pools of  small debris which must have been collected by fellow visitors over the years .
 
The aircraft was christened by a crew at some point of its life with the  name ''Flaming Mayne'' .
an unfortunate choice it turned out.


It crashed on the opposite side of the same valley as the Wellington X3336 less than a year earlier


Now I reckon thats about 45 degrees of steepness ....add your hight to that and it feels steeper . Not a place to be messing around in .