USAF McDonnell F-101 Voodoo, Creach Beinn, Morvern, crash date 07/05/64
[Picture from wikipedia.org]Google Maps display showing wreckage locations This wreck site is quite remote and little known, and lies in the hills of the Morvern peninsula on the west coast. The Voodoo jet fighter crashed near the 794m summit of Maol Odhar, about 1km east of Creach Bheinn. The wreck site is unusual in being a relatively recent military aircraft crash site that has never been cleared.
The wreckage is scattered quite widely, and there is at least one large piece of wreckage (last photo below) very high up and inaccessible in an almost vertical gully in the cliffs directly to the east of the summit of Maol Odhar (the cliffs have a climbing route on them called Voodoo Buttress). The jet came apart in mid-air over the mountain which is why the wreckage is scattered so widely across the area of Maol Odhar. The entire area of debris is about 500m in length.
Most of the wreckage lies in a remote and fairly inaccessible spot at the head of Coire nam Frithhallt below the summit cliffs of Maol Odhar, although there are some small pieces of wreckage scattered around higher up on the summit plateau of Maol Odhar itself at an altitude of about 790m, including a few pieces that have been collected and placed at the summit cairn (16th & 17th photos below - these pieces on the summit plateau are more likely to be encountered by hillwalkers). Identifiable remains on the summit include sections of undercarriage.
High up in the corrie below the cliffs of Maol Odhar at altitudes of between about 500m and 580m, lie many quite large pieces of the aircraft including sections of the jet engines and exhausts, a tyre and sections of the fuselage with markings, including the 'Air' of U.S. Air Force on a fuselage section from below the cockpit (14th photo below) and a USAF star roundel on a wing section (5th photo below). All the wreckage is extremely mangled, showing signs of the mid-air explosion and the speed of impact.
There is some information about the crash on the ACSS website here (unusually, it took ten days to find the aircraft after it crashed, and there was some press speculation that it was carrying nuclear weapons). The PDAAR website has some information about the crash and some photos (including a photo of the actual Voodoo that crashed) of the site here. There is a good photo of the actual Voodoo that crashed on a discussion forum here. There are also some photos of the wreckage near the summit of Maol Odhar on a discussion forum here, including a couple of parts that I missed which look like they lie on slopes to the south of the summit.
These pictures were taken in May 2010.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |