Aircraft which have ditched or crashed into Orkney Loch's
Miles Martinet & 35 foot towed winged target, Isbister Loch 14/7/1944
P/O Eric Haslem & P/O Scougall 771 Sqdn,took off from Twatt on a target towing duty when, due to engine failure or some other problem they ditched their aircraft into the shallow waters of Isbister Loch. Pilot P/O Haslem suffered a concusion but P/O Scougall was fine. No one seemed to know what happened to the Martinet and there were rumours that it had been salvaged from Isbister shortly after the crash. The aircraft never appeared on the records again so if it was salvaged it was beyond repair and would have been scrapped. Unfortunatly it is almost impossible to find records dealing with 771 Sqdn.
The Loch is very shallow, only two to three feet at its deepest, and seems strange an aircraft could be still here without anyone knowing about it. If it is still there, being a wooden aircraft, it will be very broken up and scattered in the shallows. ARGO&S member William Shearer talking to a local farmer one day heard that some wreckage, possibly from an aircraft had been seen in very shallow water. William went out in a small boat and saw some of the wooden wreckage and a piece was recovered after a GPS position taken, and photographed for identification.This was then returned to the Loch
William Shearer with a piece of wreckage raised & photographed for identification
The wreckage appeared to be that of a wing with both a leading and tailing edge but was far to small to be from a Martinet ! so what could it be? After hours on the internet, emails to Austrailia and numerous phone calls it turns out that this is almost certainly the tailplane of a 32 foot towed target, the same type the Martinet was towing when she ditched.
A reason for the aircraft having problems at take off may be explained on the following website, also some great photo's of a 32 foot target : http://www.qam.com.au/aircraft/frog/frog.htm
Isbister Loch (Andrew Brown)
Sea Hurricane 1 Z7089, Peedie Sea Kirkwall- 05/12/1942
This aircraft being flown by Lt. Thomas N Bush RNZVR 771 Sqn,and records have it down as Ex-Workshops at Hatston. Lt Bush was from 771 Squadron at HMS Tern (Twatt) so it is likely that he had been to Hatston to pick up the Hurricane after repairs and fly it back to Tern when for reasons unclear and from a height of 600ft it was seen to crash into the Peedie Sea, Kirkwall. Lt Bush was killed in the accident.
Lt Thomas Noel Bush aged 27 was son to Charles & Margaret Rubina Bush (Nee Wilson) of Wellington City,New Zealand. He was buried with full military honours in St.Olaf`s Cemetery, Kirkwall.
The Peedie Sea, Kirkwall. Photo: William Shearer.
Clumly Quarry.
1/10/2009
Rumours have pesisted that some rubbish was dumped in Clumly Quarry at the end of WW2 from the airfields at Twatt and Skeabrae. Due to the hazards of diving with unknown wreckage and in possible poor visibility it was decided to first do a recce with an ROV. Unfortunatly we had an eletrical failure with the control box which will be fixed and we will have another attempt very soon
Dan Wise, Roy Temple and William Shearer setting up to investigate Clumly Quarry with the ROV.
Dan Wise getting the ROV ready.
