Qualla: Dunbeath Air Crash

Dunbeath Air Crash: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

At 1:05 in the afternoon on 25 August 1942, a Short Sunderland flying boat lifted off from the calm grey water of the Cromarty Firth. Aboard were fifteen men, including Prince George, Duke of Kent, brother to the reigning king, bound for Iceland on a wartime liaison mission. Thirty-seven minutes later, the aircraft drove into a hillside at full power. Only one of the fifteen would walk away from Eagle's Rock alive.

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Dunbeath Air Crash: The Mission

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Sunderland W4026 belonged to 228 Squadron, based at RAF Oban on Scotland's west coast - flying boats whose normal work was hunting U-boats across the North Atlantic. This flight was different. The Duke of Kent, an Air Commodore in the welfare branch of the RAF, was travelling...

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Dunbeath Air Crash: Fog Over Caithness

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The planned route ran north along Scotland's eastern coast, hugging the Caithness shoreline before swinging out across the North Atlantic. Instead the Sunderland drifted inland. Visibility was poor, the wind was stronger than the forecast allowed for, and the navigator's track fa...

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Dunbeath Air Crash: The Sole Survivor

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Sergeant Andrew Jack, the tail gunner, regained consciousness in the rear turret with the world burning around him. Severely burned, he crawled clear of the wreck and spent the night on the hillside before walking miles to raise the alarm at a shepherd's cottage. He was the only ...

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Dunbeath Air Crash: A King's Brother

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Prince George, Duke of Kent, was thirty-nine, married to Princess Marina of Greece, and father of three young children - including the future Prince Michael of Kent, born just seven weeks before the crash. He was the first member of the British royal family to die on active milit...

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