Dunbeath air crash
Short Sunderland Mk. III (similar aircraft) | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 25 August 1942 |
| Summary | Controlled flight into terrain |
| Site | Eagle's Rock, near Dunbeath, Caithness, Scotland 58°14′6″N 3°31′0″W / 58.23500°N 3.51667°W |
| Aircraft type | Short Sunderland Mk. III |
| Operator | No. 18 Group, Royal Air Force |
| Registration | W4026 |
| Flight origin | RAF Invergordon, Scotland |
| Destination | RAF Reykjavik, Iceland |
| Passengers | 4 |
| Crew | 11 |
| Fatalities | 14 |
| Injuries | 1 |
| Survivors | 1 |
The Dunbeath air crash was the crash of a Short S.25 Sunderland Mk. III in the Scottish Highlands, on a headland known as Eagle's Rock (Scottish Gaelic: Creag na h-Iolaire) near Dunbeath, Caithness, on 25 August 1942. The crash killed 14 of 15 passengers and crew, including Prince George, Duke of Kent, who was on duty as an Air Commodore in the Royal Air Force on a mission to Reykjavík. A message of condolence was proposed in Parliament by Prime Minister Winston Churchill. A Royal Air Force Board of Inquiry determined that the crash was the result of a navigational error by the crew leading to controlled flight into terrain.