“The area was being cleared to cope with a sudden influx of casualties. All of us on the helicopter were given a medical check-up – except Eddie Brown. He had taken off again straight away back to Abri to join in the rescue operation. If I had realised what he had been planning to do I would have attempted to go with him. As it was I found myself ushered into the hospital’s relatives’ room. There was plenty of hot sweet tea and sympathy but there could be no comfort. News seemed a long time coming through and I even wondered if it was being deliberately withheld. I knew from my police training that both a Survivor Reception Area and a Relatives’ Centre would already have been set up, probably in hotels somewhere, and a police-run Casualties Bureau to assimilate information. There were 338 people on Abri that day – the 67 long-time island residents, all invited to the wedding, 228 other guests, the outside caterers brought in from Ilfracombe for the big occasion, the vicar from Bideford..., and the members of a well known Devon jazz band, The Dave Morgan Five, over from Plymouth.MoreLessShow More Show Less
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