Owl Pellets and Ottery St Mary

It began with Owl Pellets. 

Apparently when an owl eats something it stores the indigestible bits in a thingey from which it ejects them by mouth (by beak?) as a so-called "pellet". They are interesting as, by picking them apart with a cocktail stick, you can see much of what that owl has caught and eaten.

Mrs fbb has joined a little group that toddles off to the Seaton Wetlands every fortnight and learns all sorts of stuff about bird life, nature generally and, last week, about owl pellets.

One of the people at her table for the pellet poking procedure was Jim Rider.

He has an interesting past having been for a while conductor on the Royal Yacht Britannia. fbb assumes that was a musical conductor rather than selling HMQ a ticket every time she boarded!

Jim has written a book about a plane crash.

Recent world news about the Boeing 737 Max 8 tragedies is disturbing, but this event had a much happier outcome. None on board was seriously hurt and most repaired to a local hotel for tea and buns until they were collected by road transport.

And it all happened at Ottery St Mary in 1980.

In fact Jim has written two books on the subject. The first was a fairly straightforward account ...

... and the publishers suggested a new version with more technical stuff. Hence:-

It is the tale of a plane (the Viscount, turbo-propellor workhorse of many airlines before jets were two a penny - now planes are two for several millions of pounds!). fbb does not want to spoil the story because the book is worth buying (at £8.99) even for a non technical reader.

The plane was inbound to Exeter Airport and mysteriously ran out of go-juice near Ottery St Mary.

The pilot was able to manage an emergency landing a field and with no injuries ...

... although bits (of the plane!) were damaged in altercations with trees etc. in the field.

Jim returned to the site and discovered a trench gouged in the earth but still visible ...

... but, even more remarkably, he photographed the marks on the tree where the spinning engine had gouged a pattern in the trunk.

Ace!

And this is the very field, south (ish) of the hotel with the former railway line snaking southwards on the right.

For more explanation, buy the book!

He also sent fbb an intriguing picture of the plane flying low over the town.

Surely nobody was out and about with a box Brownie and a colour film at just the moment the plane flew over?

Jim explains.

That is the real plane and in the original  picture it was flying the other way so I had to flip it and that meant reversing all the letters and logos.

I took the pic of the Salston Manor Hotel (9/1/2014) ...

... and reconstructed the image for the book (10/2/2014) placing the plane in the shot of the hotel.

Then I brought the lead witness over to my computer and asked him exactly what he had seen from his bungalow.  He was at home with his family at the time of the incident.  He said, ‘no you have it too high… bring it down, lower, lower… yes’.  So the pic in the book is exactly what he saw.

His name is Dr Jeremy Bradshaw-Smith.  He was the Ottery St Mary's GP for many years and still lives near the hotel.  That is what he saw at 2053 on 17/7/80.

The Ottery St Mary Heritage web site has some more pictures of the plane being dismantled and carted away.

fbb was so impressed with this fascinating story, which happened just down the road from fbb mansions, that, on Saturday last, he ordered the book on line. It was delivered yesterday and will make enjoyable bedtime reading all this week.

And all because of Owl Pellets!

 Next publicity matters blog : Wednesday 10th April