Forty years ago today, 45 holidaymakers from East Lancashire were killed when their plane crashed into a mountain range near Barcelona. We look back at the day and speaks to people affected by the tragedy.

FOR communities across East Lancashire, the date of July 3, 1970, and the small Spanish town of Arbucias will be forever etched in the memory.

Just minutes from Barcelona, Dan-Air flight DA1903 crashed into the Montseny mountain range, killing all 112 people on board.

Among them were 45 holidaymakers from Burnley, Nelson, Barnoldswick, Worsthorne and Ramsbottom.

They included several families, children as young as six, and four members of an all-conquering Padiham football team, the Britannia Wanderers, just looking to soak up some Spanish sunshine.

On the Saturday morning when news of the crash broke, Sheila Maw, chairman of the Padiham Urban District Council, and George Parker, were the only councillors left in town.

George, who also ran an undertaker’s business and now lives in Simonstone, said: “I remember Sheila ringing me on Saturday morning, asking me to help and go and visit the families.

“We first heard about it on the news early that Saturday. Everybody in the town knew the lads were on that flight.

"They had saved for months. We all knew they were going away.”

Together Sheila and George visited all Padiham families who had lost someone that day, and described a ‘heartbreaking’ experience.

Peter Storah was working as a reporter for the Lancashire Evening Telegraph’s sister paper, the Burnley Evening Star, at the time and covered the crash.

He said: “I had started work on Saturday morning and was about to go and cover a cricket match.

“The editor phoned and me and a photographer were on a flight to Spain that afternoon.”

On Sunday Peter, and photographer John Hutcheon got to within a quarter of mile of the crash site, and described a scene of complete carnage.

“There was so much wreckage,” said Peter. “The site was still smoking.”

Due to Spanish law, all victims of the crash had to be buried within 48 hours.

They were laid to rest in a communal grave after a mass funeral on the Sunday.

“Me and John were the only Brits there,” said Peter, “apart from an English vicar.

"There were lots of local people there, though. They really turned out for it and showed so much compassion and grief.

"The families couldn’t be there but the locals did their best to make it a proper send-off.”

Unable to get to the funeral, memorial services attended by thousands took place in Padiham, Burnley and Manchester.

George said: “The whole of Padiham was grieving. Everybody knew everybody at that time and we were all affected in one way or another."

A memorial to those who died in Padiham now stands in Memorial Park, and there is also a memorial at Burnley Cemetery.

On the Spanish hillside where the funeral took place an eight-foot headstone still stands with all the names of the victims.

It wasn’t until November 1970 that many of the families made the pilgrimage to see where their loved ones were buried.

George said: “The families were angry and frustrated that they didn’t get to bury their loved ones and this was a chance to pay their last respects.”

How the disaster happened

On November 4, 1971, the official report into the air crash was released by the Spanish Air Ministry.

It showed the plane, which was a routine charter from Manchester, had flown a different route than usual because of air traffic control delays in the Paris area.

At 5.59pm local time it began its approach to Barcelona under the control of pilot Captain Alexander Neal, 48. It was his first flight into Barcelona as commander.

The plane was directed towards a beacon at Sabadell and mistakenly reported passing it. Coincidentally another plane overflew this beacon at the same time leading air traffic controllers to believe the Dan Air flight had passed the beacon.

The controller cleared the plane to descend to 2,800 feet but at approximately 6.05pm the aircraft struck beech trees on the north-east slopes of the Les Angudes peak.