Grostenquin France

The radio news reported a Canadian F-86 jet missing, possibly in the lake district. Low cloud held up the search until the following day when the weather cleared and the plane was found on Iron Cragg.

The next day I set off alone from Ennerdale and went up Silvercove Beck turning right at the top. Being on unfamiliar territory, I followed the wall that runs along the skyline in a northwest direction. It was a fine sunny day and as I approached the summit I could smell paraffin on the southern side of the wall. I saw the impact point which looked like a deep plough mark in the ground.

The aircraft, on a southerly course, must have been going downwards to have cleared the wall and to have struck where it did. The pilot possibly looking for a landmark on that cloudy day.

There must have been an explosion, for about 50 yards further down the tufts of grass, in a circular area, were scorched on one side, but still green on the sheltered side. This area would be around 30 yards in diameter. Now going down the hill, I began to find more peices of the plane - smaller, lighter parts that had fluttered and fallen, the heavier and more solid parts had kept flying onwards.

The area of the crash was very rough ground, with boulders and rocks amongst the heather and grass.Behind one of the rocks I found all the pilots personal posessions and a logbook, including his wallet which contained photos and nightclub tickets from Canadian cities such as Quebec and Montreal. Also I found his black laced shoes which were badly cut up. (All these items had been gathered up by the RAF Search party, but were lost in the mist). The pilots name was Robert G Starling. The birdman had fallen.

Further downhill lay quite large pieces of wings and the tail, amongst hundreds of scattered grafments. I then moved down to the soft ground of the valley, to where I was told later, the machine guns or cannons had been found embedded in the earth. Moving on and rising now to the lower slopes of Caw Fell, I saw the engine which had struck the rocks higher up with such force that part of the rock was powdered. The engine had then rolled back down the slope. The distance from the engine back to that first impact point would be just over half a mile.

After a while I climbed slowly back up the hill, retrieving the pilots gear on the way. This I returned to RAF Silloth the next day, and an Officer from the airfield came to my home to thank me for returning the pilots things.

Having spent several hours there, the scene was well planted in my mind, and so it was that 33 years later, I returned to the site with my fellow walking friend Graham Golder, and his son Shane. It was a strange experience to find that most of the pieces of the aircraft were still lying there, having survived all those seasons of wind, rain, snow and frost.

We slowly moved along, examining the parts with great interest, and for me it was like going back in time. Some time passed and we headed back towards Silver Cove on a beautiful summer evening. Then I thought back to when this peaceful and lonely lakeland valley was visited for a few moments by awful destruction and sudden death, and I thought of that young pilot whos short life had ended so tragically in the summer of 1959.

Geoff Bland
Great Corby
Carlisle
Cumbria