A PILOT from North Yorkshire killed in a crash on a snow-covered Scottish mountain 60 years ago is to be honoured with a memorial.

John Brian Lightfoot was 22 when he died as his Gloster Meteor Jet, on a training mission from RAF Leuchars, went down in a blizzard on Bennachie, a mountain in north-east Scotland.

The Bailies of Bennachie, a local conservation society, appealed through The Northern Echo for information about Pilot Officer Lightfoot, who was known to be from Northallerton, for a memorial.

They have discovered, after being contacted by his cousin, that he was the only son of Thomas Monty Lightfoot and his wife, Juanita, who ran a shop in the town, and had been a student at Barnard Castle School.

They have also been contacted by a Brian Lightfoot, no relation, but whose parents were unsure of a name for him when he was born in 1952.

Because the pilot’s death had so effected the community, the doctor suggested Brian.

The memorial, which will be unveiled in September, is for Plt Off Lightfoot and two other airmen killed in another crash on the mountainside on the day war broke out in 1939.

James Mackay, one of the Bailies of Bennachie, said: “The mountain is very special to us up here and it seemed so sad that there were these chaps who died and nobody seemed to know anything about them or care.

“I just felt strongly that their memories shouldn’t be forgotten, that they gave their lives for their country and that they haven’t died in vain.”

Mr Mackay said the Meteor Jet Plt Off Lightfoot was flying had a horrendous record in the early 1950s, with more than 50 pilots killed as planes went down.

Plt Off Lightfoot was buried with full military honours at RAF Leuchars, but parts of his plane still remain on the mountain. A cairn is being rebuilt and will be the focus of the memorial which will be inscribed in granite with the names of the three dead airmen.

Relatives and friends who would like to attend the ceremony are asked to contact Mr Mackay on 01467-642010.