February 08 - Barrow Submariners Association

Page 5 February 2008home via the reservoirs and turned in the Department of Aerospace & suicide and ultimately succeeds,left at the Crooked Billet roundabout.At my home in Ashford on the nine o’clock news. not be what he intended, is stillIndustry, who proceeded to speak even though the mechanism might(Middlesex), the six o’clock newsdefined as committing suicide."reported the air crash at Staines. At On a lighter note, there had been a16:11 on Sunday, 18 June 1972 a convention of the Salvation Army That Mr. Opus was shot on theBEA Trident G-ARPI (call sign at Sunbury and they attended in way to certain death, but probablyPapa India), having taken off from their usual role of tea and buns; as would not have been successfulHeathrow for Brussels, crashed in an ex serviceman I was so proud because of the safety net, causeda field near Staines. All on boardof them and grateful for our ‘Sally the medical examiner to feel thatwere killed – 3 pilots, 2 stewards,Army’, God bless ‘em! By 11:00 he had a homicide on his hands.pm I had to seek permission to go The room on the ninth floor,1 stewardess and 112 passengers off duty. Along the A30 the sightseerswere still very much in ed, was occupied by an elderlywhence the shotgun blast emanat-(which included 3 BEA positioningflight crew one of whom, the evidence. Particularly portrayed in man and his wife.Captain, was sitting in the P4 positionon the flight deck).Mail - a line of people with he was threatening her with a shot-a cartoon in, I believe, the Daily They were arguing vigorously andsheep’s heads, passing the line of gun. The man was so upset thatMy wife, Maureen, and friend, victims.when he pulled the trigger he completelymissed his wife and theMargaret, and I (in my police uniform,as I was the ‘Specials’),pellets went through the window,drove via Shepperton (fromstriking Mr. Opus.Muncaster Road) to avoid theheavy traffic of a Sunday teatimeplus the build up expected by theincident.After ten minutes at the ‘nick’ Igot a lift in an area car and went tothe site of the crash, a few minutesaway. The A30 was shut off fromthe roundabout at the CrookedBillet. The site was becomingovercrowded as three borderingcounties attended to assist withambulances and fire appliances.The site was just off the A30, withthe reservoir on the other side ofthe carriageway and bounded by asmall wooded area. The meadowhad long grass and the plane haddropped with the tail buriedadjacent to a ditch. The remainingaircraft frame had shot across tothe bordering hedgerow. Of thepeople onboard, as I recall therewere four who were taken tohospital, but died sometime later.The remainder were transported toa temporary morgue at Heathrow.Following the formation of a lineto search the rest of the meadow, Iwas posted to the tail plane site toprotect the black box, which hadyet to be located. There was aproblem of the public trying togain access to the site, via thewooded area. As I challenged onechap, he informed me he was fromthe BBC and wanted to get hisequipment across the ditch Imentioned earlier. Somehow wemanaged to accomplish this and Ifinished up with the microphone.Shortly afterwards I handed it toMr Michael Heseltine (now LordHeseltine), then a junior ministerI say, in passing, I was at my deskat BUPA HQ near Fleet Street, at09:00 sharp, next morning. I hadnot slept at all. With the currentculture of stress counselling andcompensation, how different,given how Police officers in thosedays and especially volunteer‘Specials’ just accepted each dutyas it came - rough or smooth.Leslie WillcoxForensic ScienceAt the 1994 annual awards dinnergiven for Forensic Science, AAFS,President Dr. Don Harper Millsastounded his audience with thelegal complications of a bizarredeath. Here is the story:On March 23, 1994 the medicalexaminer viewed the body ofRonald Opus and concluded thathe died from a shotgun wound tothe head. Mr. Opus had jumpedfrom the top of a ten story buildingintending to commit suicide. Heleft a note to that effect, indicatinghis despondency.As he fell pastthe ninth floor his life was interruptedby a shotgun blast passingthrough a window which killedhim instantly.Neither the shooter nor thedescender was aware that a safetynet had been installed just belowat the eighth floor level to protectsome building workers and thatRonald Opus would not have beenable to complete his suicide theway he had planned."Ordinarily," Dr. Mills continued,"a person who sets out to commitWhen one intends to kill subject Abut kills subject B in the attempt,one is guilty of the murder of subjectB. When confronted with themurder charge the old man and hiswife were both adamant. Theyboth said they thought the shotgunwas unloaded. The old man said itwas his long-standing habit tothreaten his wife with theunloaded shotgun. He had nointention to murder her.Therefore the killing of Mr. Opusappeared to be an accident; that is,the gun had been accidentallyloaded. The continuing investigationturned up a witness who sawthe old couple's son loading theshotgun about six weeks prior tothe fatal accident. It transpiredthat the old lady had cut off herson's financial support and theson, knowing the propensity of hisfather to use the shotgun threateningly,loaded the gun with theexpectation that his father wouldshoot his mother. The case nowbecomes one of murder on the partof the son for the death of RonaldOpus.Now comes the exquisite twist.Further investigation revealed thatthe son was, in fact, Ronald Opus.He had become increasinglydespondent over the failure of hisattempt to engineer his mother'smurder. This led him to jump offthe ten story building on March23rd, only to be killed by a shotgunblast passing through theninth story window.The son had actually murderedhimself so the medical examinerclosed the case as a suicide.