Fiona Collier heard on radio that her parents and sister died in a 1978 helicopter crash

Fiona Collier says she was 16 and lying in bed at her boarding school when she heard on the radio the names of her parents and sister had been reported missing after a helicopter left Le Touquet and failed to return to UK airspace on a sunny May bank holiday in 1978. She describes immediate chaos at home in Harpenden, Hertfordshire: friends and teachers trying to support her, her aunt Bunny and the family driver Isaac arriving, and a massive air and sea search by French and English military.

Local fishermen said visibility had been clear that day and her father had checked the helicopter’s floats before departure, but ‘‘to this day, no one knows what happened’’. Bodies were recovered in the weeks after the accident: her father first, then her mother, and later her sister Emma, who was still strapped into her seat.

Collier recounts the prolonged aftermath — funerals and a memorial, possessions removed from the family home, and a fraught relationship with her aunt, who became Sophie’s guardian. She writes of long-term effects on her mental health, episodes she describes as ‘‘fits’’, and coping by travelling, studying and working as a secretary before later marrying and raising two children and, now, two grandchildren.

Her daughter, also called Emma, noted that current regulations would prevent a media outlet reporting deaths before next of kin are informed.

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Culture, Fiona Collier, Le Touquet, Harpenden, Channel