To the north and below cloud level, Flying Officer McEwan and his team were making good time but were still behind the other two teams heading for the same place.
After a rest, Sergeant Bradley got his team moving again, picking up an old track that would lead to the summit of Cairn Toul. It was easier going and they started to make better time. The track veered round Carn na Criche and led almost due south towards the cliffs that overlooked the Lairig Ghru, only the thick mist prevented them from seeing much further than three yards. Corporals Rogerson and Hill were taking a turn in the lead. As they walked on, the snow lay thicker and there was no sign of the track. Suddenly, Andy Hill yelled for Jamie Rogerson to stop and turned and signalled for the other pairs to halt. “It doesn’t feel right, Jamie. The hairs are standing up on the back of my neck. Can you feel hard ground through the snow?
Rogerson dug his boot in by the toe. “No, I can only feel snow. Let’s backtrack and veer more west of south.” They did this and, after about twenty yards, found bare rock and the old path. They breathed a sigh of relief and increased their pace. Later, they would discover that they had walked out onto a snow overhang and were fortunate that it didn’t collapse under them.
Across the valley, Captain Garasov and his team were skirting the southern slopes of Ben Macdhui and saw no sign of a crash. The snow lay undisturbed. “It must be across the other side of the Lairig Ghru,” said Captain Garasov. “We will head down and cross over,” and with that he swung round and led the way to the slope that was reasonably smooth and descended between rough outcropping. Their descent was fairly quick once they were below the cloud base. Pausing just below the cloud base, Garasov looked across the Lairig Ghru to the slopes of Cairn Toul and noticed dark patches in the snow. He took his binoculars out and trained on those patches. What he was looking at were parts of an aircraft scattered across the slopes. “Success! The plane crashed on the slopes of Cairn Toul. We will need to find the main part of the fuselage and its cargo.” Buoyed by the sighting, the team hurried down to the valley and crossed it in haste. They reached the first parts of the wreckage, the tailplane, and saw that the main wreckage was above the cloud base.
About the same time, Sergeant Bradley’s team reached the summit of Cairn Toul and paused to radio in their location. He was picked up by both the base camp and Flying Officer McEwan, the latter responding, “We are not far behind you in the valley, Brad, and are about where the two burns join. Keep your radio switched on now in case we need to talk in a hurry. Over.”
“Right-oh, sir, we will move south along the ridge to Coire Odhar and then drop down to the bothy. Over.” They started moving south along the edge of the cliff, peering through the mist for any sign of aircraft wreckage. Five minutes later they spotted part of the fuselage not far below the top of the cliff. Sergeant Bradley called a halt and radioed in their find. As he did so, Flying Officer McEwan lifted his binoculars up and trained them on the area. He picked up the broken tailplane just below the cloud base and then swore. There were four figures moving around it. They were dressed in white and could only be picked up when they were moving.
“Come in Brad. We have visitors. There are four men moving away from the tailplane and up towards the cloud base. They could be our ‘friends’ the office told us about. Four of you move down to the wreckage you can see and two remain on the rim. We’ll move in behind them. Over.”
There was a “Message received and understood. Over and out.” Then Sergeant Bradley said, “It appears we have company that may not be friendly. Jamie and Andy, you come with Tiny and me. Tim and Dave, you both stay on the rim. Unrope and spread out a bit. We’ll leave our packs on the rim but take your ice axes and put your crampons on. Jamie, take the radio with you. The four of us will go down and cover the wreckage. Keep quiet and only call out in an emergency.” They quickly did as they were told and then Sergeant Bradley led the way down off the rim and to the wreck. The slope was very steep but negotiable without ropes. They carefully eased their way down to the wreckage. A superficial examination showed that the nose and cockpit had telescoped on impact, the main fuselage breaking off at the wing spars and breaking up. Parts would be below the impact site but were out of site with the mist. Sergeant Bradley indicated by hand to spread out and move down towards the fuselage parts, still out of sight in the mist. As they neared the wreckage, they heard voices below them. Sergeant Bradley indicated to Jamie to be with him and to Andy and Tiny to spread out.
Unaware of other people in the area, Captain Garasov and his team moved up and into the mist that still covered the mountains. As they worked their way up the slope, they followed where the snow had been scored by the falling tailplane. They came across the broken parts of the fuselage and one of them pointed to a small crate fastened to the floor of the aircraft cabin. Garasov indicated to the crate and one of the men took a claw hammer out of his pack and started prising open the lid of the crate. The lid came away and
