Three years later Kinloss and Leuchars joined forces when a Canberra crashed on Lochnagar, killing the crew of two. They were helped on this occasion by a helicopter which ferried the rescuers between the road and the 3,000 foot summit.

They seem to have respected local feeling to a degree not often found even among mountaineers. In May 1959, on the way to the wreckage of a Seahawk, Kinloss turned back at the request of a local 'keeper who was afraid that they would disturb the game. Fortunately the body had been recovered by helicopter.

In 1957 they had another unusual job: that of standing by as First Aid parties when the Nevis race was being run. This takes place between Fort William and the summit of Ben Nevis. It involves 4,400 feet of ascent over about five miles of very rough track (the old pony track up the south side of the mountain) and the return to the town.

On September 7th, 1957, it was raining and cloud was down on the summit, restricting visibility to thirty yards. Flags were placed at the heads of gullies where the route comes close to the edge of the summit plateau; these were meant to warn both competitors and spectators. The RAF parties were in radio communication.

The race started at 3.45 pm.
The best runners finish in what seems like fantastic time; the record for the round trip, set up in 1956, being 1 hour 45 minutes 55 seconds.

At 5.30 pm the RAF were informed that one competitor was missing. The race was over then and the Race Committee started down the mountain at 5.50 pm, as did the Kinloss team, who collected four exhausted runners en route. They carried one on the Thomas stretcher, made a rope stretcher for the second, while the remaining two were assisted as much as possible manually. After some distance another rigid stretcher arrived and the second man was transferred to this.

By 8.15 pm all known casualties had been evacuated.
At 8.30 pm the Inspector of police at Fort William arrived at the RAF base and said it was thought that another competitor might be on the hill, and by 9.0pm this was definitely confirmed. It was decided that if he were still missing at 10 pm, the police would inform the RAF of the fact.

At 10.0pm a search party of RAF, police and civilians set out, but twenty minutes later came a call-out for the team to proceed to the Isle of Skye where two climbers were reported overdue at Glen Brittle. The team were instructed to proceed with both operations.

They found the missing man in the ravine formed by the Red Burn. He was unconscious when found and died on the way down.

That day the team had dealt with six stretcher or near-stretcher cases. Subsequently the RAF made certain recommendations concerning the race.

It was recommended that the route should be more clearly defined and that there should be sufficient markers to ensure that the runners were never out of sight of a non-participant in the race. If visibility were so poor as to make this impracticable, the race Continue to Page 11