Vandals lay waste to Staines Air Crash memorial site

A grandmother and her granddaughter spent 15 minutes trying to make the site look as nice as possible, but other residents added 'it is an outrage this has happened.

Sue Mckechnie, who was with her four-year-old granddaughter Hanna Hobbs, said: "We came along and saw all the rubble, and thought it must have been vandals, so Hanna got it into her head to play Bob the Builder.

"We thought it was a shame but when we realised it was a memorial site I thought it was doubly disrespectful."

The site was placed at the end of 2004 as the town had no previous memorial site to remember the 118 people who lost their lives in the air crash on June 18 1972.

The Papa India plane had just left Heathrow and was heading towards Brussels when it crashed near the Moormede Estate.

It is one of the worst aeroplane crashes in British history.

Another nearby resident, who did not want to be named, said he regularly sees youths hanging about in the park late at night, and said he would like to see more police presence at the site.

The man said: "When I saw it in the morning it looked like the vandals had pried up some of the slabs and smashed them all over the floor and benches.

"The benches were broken and it looked like they had actually tried to hit the memorial plaque as well. It is absolutely outrageous."

The man said the site was vandalised about three years ago, when racist words were written over, which he believed was in reference to the aeroplane's codename 'Papa India.'

He added: "It must have something to do with half term, but I regularly see damage to the children's play area nearby, such as graffiti and litter.

"Some people show no respect, but it makes it even more outrageous when you think this site commemorates the dead."