But what she did now know was who the passengers were. A paper log book found on the mountainside had been handed in by a member of the public. It had obviously been blown out of the fuselage on impact. It told her what she needed to know and also provided some measure of relief that the accident could have been much worse. There were two passengers and two crew. It hadn’t taken long to establish that the names of the two travellers were going to make headlines. One was a DEFRA minister, and the other was a wealthy Tory party donor. It had been confirmed that the man pulled alive from the wreckage was the DEFRA minister, who’d been attending a climate conference in Glenridding for the weekend. The other passenger had been confirmed dead, along with the two pilots.

Johnny walked over to her and offered her a blanket and a small flask cup of something hot. It steamed against the bitter air of the now black night. The moon was bright above the fog and cast eerie shadows across the crash site. Lights had been erected over an area of hundreds of square feet and generators kept medical holding tents warm and fully functional. She’d lost count of how many helicopters had landed on the Col. A makeshift landing pad had been denoted out of red lanterns and three MRT members with RAF experience directed landing crafts. The critically injured had all been airlifted and the surgeons had gone with them. All of the spectators had gone home, either carried down or on foot, and the mountain was quiet.

Those left on the Col were covered in mud from kneeling and carrying, and exhaustion was setting in. Dead bodies were still strewn across the most inaccessible parts of the mountain, but those treatable had all been evacuated, and the medical tents were quiet. The last of the medics were being evacuated and she looked around, satisfied that this was now a secure site ready for investigation when morning broke. Nothing more could be done now. The names of competitors in the race, as well as spectators, and the passenger list and flight path from the helicopter had all been submitted and they’d done their best to account for everybody. Just two runners were still missing and it was suspected that they were underneath the wreckage. They wouldn’t know until it was removed, and that could take days. The AAIB would be up here first thing in the morning and until then, Kelly had done her job. The site was secure and she could get one of the last rides home to start writing her report.