The pilot who survived the Winter Hill crash has died, aged 85.
Mike Cairnes was one of seven survivors of the disaster that killed 35 people when his plane crashed en route from Douglas in 1958.
The plane was carrying members of the Island’s motor trade who were to visit a car battery factory in Swinton when a navigational error led to the Island’s worst ever air disaster.
Mr Cairnes, who was born in Hereford, died at Macclesfield District General Hospital.
He had lived in Spain for four years with his wife, before they moved back to the United Kingdom when Mr Cairnes became ill.
(Pictured: contemporary newspaper pictures of the disaster, and a plaque remembering the victims).
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