Post by hi224 on Dec 19, 2018 23:05:02 GMT
On Christmas Eve in 1975, 54-year old Peter Gibbs, a former fighter pilot who served with the Royal Air Force in World War II, was having dinner at the Glenforsa Hotel on the Isle of Mull in Scotland with his girlfriend, Felicity Grainger. Gibbs was a property developer from London who was looking into buying a hotel on the island and had rented a Cessna F150H which was housed at the adjacent Glenforsa Airfield. During dinner, Gibbs got the sudden compulsion to take the Cessna out for a quick evening flight. He was brainstorming the idea of opening up his own hotel with an adjacent airstrip and wanted to test the possibility of flying at night. The hotel staff advised against this because a winter storm was approaching, the airfield did not have landing lights, and local regulations banned flights from taking place at night. However, Gibbs still insisted on flying, so he and Granger left the hotel, climbed into the Cessna and taxied down the runway. Grainger climbed out and placed two torches about a foot apart, which would function as Gibbs’ landing light. The Cessna took off at 9:30 PM and was only supposed to be gone five minutes. After a half hour passed, Gibbs had still not returned and since heavy sleet was beginning to fall, the police were notified. Over the next few days, there would be a full-scale search of the island which failed to turn up any trace of Gibbs or the missing Cessna.
On April 21, 1976, a local shepherd was walking down a hill located approximately one mile from the Glenforsa Hotel when he came across Peter Gibbs’ body, lying on his back across a log. The location was about 400 feet up from the base of the hill and Gibbs was still wearing the same clothing and flying boots he put on before takeoff. The only injury was a superficial three-inch cut on Gibbs’ right leg and the medical examiner concluded he was likely dead the entire four months he was missing. Without any noticeable signs of foul play, the cause of death was officially determined to be exposure. It turned out that Gibbs’ pilot’s licence had been expired since October 1974 and during his last flying test, the examiner ruled Gibbs needed to wear spectacles, but he never wore glasses while piloting a plane. A fatal accident inquiry was held and since the Cessna could still not be found, they found it likely that Gibbs accidentally crashed the aircraft into the Sound of Mull. He then swam to shore and attempted to walk back to the hotel before succumbing to hypothermia and exposure. However, there were a number of issues with this theory…
-the hill where Gibbs was found had been searched following his disappearance and was frequently used by local farmers and shepherds during the next four months, but even though his body was lying out in the open, no one noticed it until April
-if Gibbs had crashed into the Sound of Mull and swam to shore, it would have required him to climb up a cliff face before reaching the road. If he had followed the road, he could have made it back to the hotel, but he inexplicably crossed it instead and walked 400 feet uphill
-years later, Allan J. Organ, an author writing a book about this case, attempted to replicate the route Gibbs would have taken if he had crashed into the water and walk from the shoreline to the spot his body was discovered. The terrain was so rough that after walking for 40 minutes, Organ only made it about 200 feet up the hill before he gave up from exhaustion
-no traces of salt water deposits or marine microorganisms were found on Gibbs’ skin or clothing, creating doubt that he was ever in the water, though the medical examiner suggested that four months of rain and snow could have washed all traces of sea salt away
-while Gibbs' body had supposedly been out in the elements for four months, it had very little decomposition or signs of animal predation, even though animals were known to frequent that particular hill
-on the night the Cessna took off, witnesses from the Glenforsa Hotel were watching through binoculars and thought they saw both torches on the airstrip being moved in opposite directions simultaneously. This seemed to suggest an additional person was on the runaway, but Felicity Grainger maintained she was the only one there
-before takeoff, Gibbs allegedly told Grainger that if anything went wrong, he would throttle the engine of his aircraft right back and jump to safety. This created speculation that Gibbs may have jumped out of the Cessna in mid-flight while it was still over land before it crashed into the water. However, no parachutes were ever found and it seemed hard to believe Gibbs could have jumped out of the aircraft without sustaining any serious injuries
In September 1986, a diver named George Foster came across what appeared to be a Cessna in the Sound of Mull, resting on the seabed 100 feet below the surface and approximately 500 meters from shore. Both of the wings had sheared off, one of the wheels was ripped off, and the engine was detached from the aircraft. There was also a hole in the windscreen and both cockpit doors were closed. Foster claimed he saw the plane’s registration number, G-AVTN, which matched the number on Peter Gibbs’ Cessna, but the photographs he took were too blurry to make out anything. Subsequent searches failed to uncover the Cessna, but in 2004, Royal Navy warships came across a wrecked aircraft 100 feet underwater in the same approximate location. It was eventually identified as an RAF Catalina flying boat which had gone down during World War II. However, no one could be certain if this was the same aircraft George Foster had seen, as he had described it as missing both wings, whereas the Catalina was only missing one wing. The Cessna has never officially been located and this story has become known as “The Great Mull Air Mystery”.
I chronicle this mystery on this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” podcast:
trailwentcold.com/2018/12/19/the-trail-went-cold-episode-103-the-great-mull-air-mystery/
Sources:
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-riddle-of-the-lost-flight-69672.html
mysteriousuniverse.org/2015/10/the-great-mull-air-mystery/
www.historicmysteries.com/peter-gibbs-great-mull-air-mystery/
mysteryinksite.wordpress.com/2016/03/01/the-mull-air-mystery/
On April 21, 1976, a local shepherd was walking down a hill located approximately one mile from the Glenforsa Hotel when he came across Peter Gibbs’ body, lying on his back across a log. The location was about 400 feet up from the base of the hill and Gibbs was still wearing the same clothing and flying boots he put on before takeoff. The only injury was a superficial three-inch cut on Gibbs’ right leg and the medical examiner concluded he was likely dead the entire four months he was missing. Without any noticeable signs of foul play, the cause of death was officially determined to be exposure. It turned out that Gibbs’ pilot’s licence had been expired since October 1974 and during his last flying test, the examiner ruled Gibbs needed to wear spectacles, but he never wore glasses while piloting a plane. A fatal accident inquiry was held and since the Cessna could still not be found, they found it likely that Gibbs accidentally crashed the aircraft into the Sound of Mull. He then swam to shore and attempted to walk back to the hotel before succumbing to hypothermia and exposure. However, there were a number of issues with this theory…
-the hill where Gibbs was found had been searched following his disappearance and was frequently used by local farmers and shepherds during the next four months, but even though his body was lying out in the open, no one noticed it until April
-if Gibbs had crashed into the Sound of Mull and swam to shore, it would have required him to climb up a cliff face before reaching the road. If he had followed the road, he could have made it back to the hotel, but he inexplicably crossed it instead and walked 400 feet uphill
-years later, Allan J. Organ, an author writing a book about this case, attempted to replicate the route Gibbs would have taken if he had crashed into the water and walk from the shoreline to the spot his body was discovered. The terrain was so rough that after walking for 40 minutes, Organ only made it about 200 feet up the hill before he gave up from exhaustion
-no traces of salt water deposits or marine microorganisms were found on Gibbs’ skin or clothing, creating doubt that he was ever in the water, though the medical examiner suggested that four months of rain and snow could have washed all traces of sea salt away
-while Gibbs' body had supposedly been out in the elements for four months, it had very little decomposition or signs of animal predation, even though animals were known to frequent that particular hill
-on the night the Cessna took off, witnesses from the Glenforsa Hotel were watching through binoculars and thought they saw both torches on the airstrip being moved in opposite directions simultaneously. This seemed to suggest an additional person was on the runaway, but Felicity Grainger maintained she was the only one there
-before takeoff, Gibbs allegedly told Grainger that if anything went wrong, he would throttle the engine of his aircraft right back and jump to safety. This created speculation that Gibbs may have jumped out of the Cessna in mid-flight while it was still over land before it crashed into the water. However, no parachutes were ever found and it seemed hard to believe Gibbs could have jumped out of the aircraft without sustaining any serious injuries
In September 1986, a diver named George Foster came across what appeared to be a Cessna in the Sound of Mull, resting on the seabed 100 feet below the surface and approximately 500 meters from shore. Both of the wings had sheared off, one of the wheels was ripped off, and the engine was detached from the aircraft. There was also a hole in the windscreen and both cockpit doors were closed. Foster claimed he saw the plane’s registration number, G-AVTN, which matched the number on Peter Gibbs’ Cessna, but the photographs he took were too blurry to make out anything. Subsequent searches failed to uncover the Cessna, but in 2004, Royal Navy warships came across a wrecked aircraft 100 feet underwater in the same approximate location. It was eventually identified as an RAF Catalina flying boat which had gone down during World War II. However, no one could be certain if this was the same aircraft George Foster had seen, as he had described it as missing both wings, whereas the Catalina was only missing one wing. The Cessna has never officially been located and this story has become known as “The Great Mull Air Mystery”.
I chronicle this mystery on this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold” podcast:
trailwentcold.com/2018/12/19/the-trail-went-cold-episode-103-the-great-mull-air-mystery/
Sources:
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-riddle-of-the-lost-flight-69672.html
mysteriousuniverse.org/2015/10/the-great-mull-air-mystery/
www.historicmysteries.com/peter-gibbs-great-mull-air-mystery/
mysteryinksite.wordpress.com/2016/03/01/the-mull-air-mystery/