Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of a terrible air-crash near Basle in Switzerland. 108 people died in snowy woodlands as the plane came down during a snowstorm. Many of the people on board were women, and many came from Somerset where I live. It shocked the world when it happened, but here in our small county it was particularly heart-breaking as the mothers of forty children were killed on what should have been a lovely day out.
The women, and some of their husbands, ordinary mums, grandmas, sisters and friends had gone,as they had for the previous two years on a shopping day to Basle, flying from Bristol Airport (as we have many times) to Switzerland. It was the annual outing for members of Axbridge Ladies Guild, who were joined by women from Cheddar Mums’ Night Out group, skittles players from Wrington and Congresbury, plus friends and relatives. These are all small villages within ten miles of where I’m sitting now, pretty, ordinary places, with nice, ordinary families.
Axbridge
Those nice, ordinary families were torn by the loss ; one young girl lost 11 (yes, eleven) members of her family; another young woman lost her mother and her sister. It took days for all the lost to be identified, imagine the awful waiting back in Somerset, not knowing if you were going to be bereaved, praying that you weren’t, but knowing that if your loved-one had survived, then maybe it was someone else’s in the mortuary in the Alps.
Congresbury
Some time after my mum and I went to a church in one of the villages which had lost their families, and the remaining women in the community had beautifully embroidered hassocks (kneeling cushions) with the names of the lost, as a tribute and reminder. We looked at them quietly, admiring the love which had gone into making them, and thinking our own thoughts.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-22094227
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-22077051
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7339274.stm
Lois Elsden 
Thank you for this post, I know a woman who lost her mother and sister on this flight. It is a heartbreaking tragedy. Can you tell me which church has the tribute with the kneeling cushions? I would love to see this. Thanks so much!
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It’s Axbridge village church, St John the Baptist, in Somerset, near Cheddar. It’s a beautiful church and a lovely village.
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Hi Lois, so lovely to read this. I visited this church on Saturday, and I am stunned by the beauty of Axbridge! Did you by any chance know a Joyce Carey? She would have just given birth a few days before so would not have been on this flight. Just trying to track down someone who knew either her or her husband Trevor.
Thank you Angela
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No… sorry…. I’ll see if anyone I know remembers her!
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My partner’s Grand parents died as a result of the crash. It will be 50 years next year.Is there a trip being run to mark the anniversary, does anybody know?
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I don’t know, Sally-Ann. A friend of mine also lost some close friends of hers, maybe she will know, I will ask her. Such an awful, shocking tragedy.
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