A HEROINE from North Yorkshire recognised as one of the most courageous women in commercial aviation history is being remembered 50 years after she died battling to rescue passengers from the blazing wreckage of a plane.

Stewardess Barbara Jane Harrison, 22, is one of only four women ever to be awarded the George Cross – the highest honour that can be awarded to a civilian, second only to the Victoria Cross and given for conspicuous courage not on a battlefield.

She is the youngest woman to be awarded and the only one recognised in peacetime. Her astonishing bravery helped save 121 people from the burning wreckage of a Boeing 707 plane which set off on a flight from Heathrow to Sydney on April 8, 1968.

Within minutes there was an explosion and one engine plummeted to the ground. Pilot Capt Charles Taylor somehow managed to turn the plane round and land back at Heathrow, but it was catastrophically damaged. There were more explosions on landing and the fuselage burst into flames.

A desperate scramble to get passengers off the plane was launched by the five crew. Jane Harrison, as she preferred to be known, was at the forefront, sending dozens of people down chutes and when they were consumed by the fire, pushing them to safety.

She was last seen at one of the doors by other crew members. At that stage she could have saved herself but instead turned back into the cabin and the choking black smoke to try to save others. An elderly disabled woman and an eight-year-old child were still inside along with two other women.

She was never seen again. Her ashes were found the next day by fire crews, huddled with the four remaining passengers near one of the doors.

President of the Board of Trade Anthony Crosland campaigned for her bravery to be acknowledged. In 1969 he wrote: “From the evidence available, it is known that without thought for her own safety she returned time and time again to the cabin door to push out passengers before returning for others, until she went back into the aircraft and failed to reappear.

“I believe that this devotion to duty, in the highest traditions of her calling, is worthy of recognition by the posthumous award of the George Cross.”

Miss Harrison, who attended Scarborough Girls High School, worked in Switzerland and America before joining the British Overseas Airways Corporation when she was 21. She is buried in Fulford cemetery, near York.

Her sister Sue Buck, 76, who still lives in the city, said: “My father went to Buckingham Palace and got the medal from the Queen. The Duke of Edinburgh had seen the plane from his study window – he had seen it happen.

“If you were a passenger you would want somebody who was in charge to do their job at a time like that because they have been trained. That’s what she did, she did her job right to the end.

“She put everybody else’s life before her own. She could have jumped out, but she went back because there were still people inside. I’m very proud of her.”

The family marked the anniversary of Jane’s death with a mass held in her honour.