The Forgotten Plane Disaster

In July 1970, Douglas Gill was due to go on holiday to Spain with his younger brother, 19, & his girlfriend but cancelled at the last minute as he couldn’t afford it. The teenage sweethearts were among 112 who died when their plane crashed into mountains near Barcelona. They were, astonishingly, all buried in a mass grave within 48 hours..

- Paul Byrne

In a cemetery filled with birdsong on the outskirts of a Spanish town, 112 Britons lie in a mass grave sheltered by pine trees, victims of a tragedy forgotten by most of the world.

But a memorial bears all of their names and the way their landscaped resting place is cared for shows the locals at least still remember them.

So, of course, do the families of those who died on Dan-Air Flight 1903 – although it is unlikely many others are aware of this “forgotten” disaster on its 50th anniversary.

The holiday flight from Manchester Airport was en route to the Costa Brava on July 3, 1970, when it crashed while approaching Barcelona.

The de Havilland Comet 4 went down in dense trees on the Montseny mountain range and its wreckage was found the next day at 3,800ft.

Then, to the horror of families expecting loved ones to be repatriated, within 48 hours the 105 passengers and seven crew were buried together 40 miles away, in Arbucies.

Among them were teenage sweethearts Norma Smith, 18, and George Gill, 19. The couple, who had never flown before, had been due to travel with George’s elder brother Douglas, then 23, his wife and five-year-old son.

But weeks before the trip, delivery driver Douglas had an accident at work – and as he did not get sick pay, he could not afford to go.

Douglas, 73, said: “My brother was frightened of flying and said he wished he had booked a week in Blackpool instead. “But I told him, ‘Don’t worry, you will only be flying two hours, you’ll be there before you know it’. About a week before he went, he said, ‘If I hear of a plane crash before I go, it will put my mind at ease but if I don’t, it is going to ours’.

“He seemed to have a feeling that something wasn’t right.”