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Memorials to Two Aircraft Crashes
This cemetery contains the memorials and communal graves of the victims of two aeroplane crashes.
The first crash was the Swiss Globe Air crash of 1967, the largest air disaster in Cyprus, in which 126 people
died when a Bristol Britannia aircraft crashed in a violent thunderstorm near the village of Lakatamia.
Between 44 and 88 of these victims are variously reported as having originally been interred in Larnaca
Cemetery – the cemetery records are unclear on this point.4 They were reburied in a communal grave due
to overcrowding in the cemetery in 2009;5 44 names are commemorated on the memorials.
Memorials upon communal grave of Swiss Globe Air crash of 1967
The second crash occurred on 29 January 1973, when an EgyptAir Ilyushin Il – 18 crashed at night into
the Kyrenia mountains above the village of Lapithos (Lapta) on its descent towards Nicosia Airport. All
37 people on board died. One (Miss Diana Rendle) is buried at The Old British Cemetery Kyrenia,and
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12 are interred at this cemetery.
Two young RAF nurses from The Princess Mary’s RAF Hospital Akrotiri (TPMH),7 Flying Officers Helen
Deery and Sheila Noble PMRAFNS, were among the victims of this crash –their bodies were repatriated
to the United Kingdom.
4 ‘Last Resting Place for Cyprus Britons’ Cyprus Weekly, 22 April 2011
5 ‘Cyprus plane crash victims to be re-buried in mass grave’ Cyprus Mail, 4 October 2009
6 Betts, Dorothyann (2010), Shadows of Empire – The Old British Cemetery Kyrenia. (Northern Cyprus: Soyem Publishing).
7 Vassallo D J, (2012), A History of The Princess Mary’s Hospital Royal Air Force Akrotiri 1963 – 2013 (Limassol: Cyprint)
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