Mauritania

These photos were taken on an expedition in October 2002 to Mauritania in West Africa, to search for a lost airliner that crash landed 50 years ago.
Due to navigator error, the BOAC Hermes was 1,300 miles off course, from it's flight from Tripoli to Kano, and finally ran out of fuel coming down in the
sands of the western Sahara. Accompanying the expedition were Olwen Haslam, widow of the First Officer, Ted Haslam, and Richard Gurney who was
a mere babe in arms and a passenger on the ill-fated flight. The story has been told in a BBC documentary as part of the "Meet The Ancestors" series.

Olwen Haslam was able to visit the grave of her husband Ted, who is buried in a cemetery at the oasis of Aioun Lebgar.
Tragically, Ted suffered a head wound and was the only fatality among the eighteen passengers and crew.
And for Richard Gurney, it was an emotional trip too, especially when the expedition uncovered an emergency exit hatch;
possibly the one through which he had escaped 50 years ago.