When Our Plane Hit the Mountain

Monday, 12 August 1946. Twenty-one French Girl Guides arrive at Le Bourget Airport in Paris en route to a holiday camp in Ireland. Laughing and giggling in the early morning sun, the excited teenagers board an old military aircraft bound for Dublin.

But, by the end of the day events take such a horrific turn that their powers of endurance are drastically put to the test and their lives transformed forever.

Suzanne Barnes has tracked down the witnesses to this astonishing event, meeting former Irish Guides who were at the holiday camp in 1946 and talking to rescuers, doctors and locals. Travelling to Paris, Lille, Le Harve and Nantes, she met the survivors and heard their tales of adventure.

A tribute to the heroic acts of courage and kindness, When Our Plane Hit the Mountain is a story of adventure, peril, fortitude and, untimately, survival.