Dunbeath air crash

The aircraft, assigned to 228 Squadron, was based at RAF Oban.[6] 228 Squadron was part of 18 Group, involved in long range maritime operations and particularly anti-submarine warfare, reconnaissance and long range liaison flights.

The aircraft and crew were assigned a VIP transport mission to RAF Reykjavik, specifically to transport Prince George, Duke of Kent, to Iceland.[7] The aircraft departed from a seaplane base at RAF Invergordon on the Cromarty Firth at 1305 GMT on Sunday 25 August 1942 into foggy weather. The Sunderland (flying on instruments) veered off its flight plan track and crashed into the remote Eagle's Rock[8] at 13:42 GMT.[9] Fourteen of the fifteen crew and passengers, including His Royal Highness The Duke of Kent, perished in the crash.[10][11]

The crash site memorial at Eagle's Rock.

Among those who died in the crash:[6][12]

Passengers

• His Royal Highness Prince George, Duke of Kent.

Crew

• Flight Lieutenant Frank McKenzie Goyen, Aircraft Captain.
• Pilot Officer Sidney Wood Smith RAAF, 2nd pilot.
• Pilot Officer George Saunders, Navigator.

The official board of inquiry concluded that the plane crashed into the hillside due to an error of navigation; i.e. there was not enough allowance made for wind that caused the aircraft to drift off its planned track up the eastern coast of Scotland.[5][13]

The Board noted that investigation at the crash site suggested that all four engines were at full power at the time of impact.[5]

Sergeant Andrew Jack, the aircraft's Wireless Operator/Air Gunner, survived. Jack recovered from the injuries he sustained in the accident, was later commissioned as a Pilot Officer in the General Duties Branch on 12 January 1945,[14] and served in the RAF up until 1964; retiring as a Flight Lieutenant.[6][15] Jack died in Brighton in 1978 aged 56.[16]

Some of the 228 Squadron crew's remains were interred at Pennyfuir Cemetery in Oban.[17] The Duke of Kent, the first member of a British Royal Family to die on active military service since the death of James IV of Scotland at the Battle of Flodden in 1513,[18] was buried in the Royal Burial Ground, Frogmore.