Date:	Tuesday 25 September 1951
Time:	10:30 LT
Type:	Fairey Firefly AS.5
Owner/operator:	719 Sqn FAA RN
Registration:	WB336
MSN:	F8541
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Beinn Uraraidh, Islay. -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	HMS Gannet, RNAS Eglinton, Northern Ireland
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Fairey Firefly Mk.5 WB336: Delivered to the FAA RN (Fleet Air Arm Royal Navy) at RNAS Culham RDU 23/9/1949. To HMS Sanderling, RNAS Abbotsinch AHU by/in January 1950 (until at least July 1950) for preparation for issue for service. In service with 719 Squadron FA RN at HMS Gannet, RNAS Eglinton, Northern Ireland by September 1950 as "227/GN".

Written off (destroyed) 25/9/1951 when crashed at Beinn Uraraidh, Islay, Scotland at approximate coordinates 55'41" North, 06'06" West. Both crew killed.

Both men, from the Royal Australian Navy, were in training with No.737 Squadron at Prestwick but part of their combined training was with No.719 Squadron at Eglinton in Northern Ireland. On the day of the crash the two took off in Firefly WB336 for a "controlled anti-submarine patrol exercise". They were to take off and receive orders once airborne. They had been briefed with a safety height of 3000 feet and were only to fly below that height should they encounter cloud and were ordered to remain below any cloud.

The weather was reported as being good that day, being mainly sunny with some scattered cumulus, especially around the Scottish islands. Cloud was reported to be covering the hills on Islay during the morning of the 25th September 1951.

Their initial orders were to take departure from Portrush, near Coleraine, on a bearing of 024 degrees for 30 miles and commence a grid search. These orders were acknowledged at 10:19 and the aircraft took up its course for the patrol area. Thirty miles at 024 degrees from Portrush would have taken the aircraft into the area around the Mull of Oa in the south of Islay.

Further orders were transmitted to the aircraft at around 10:30 and were repeated numerous times until 11:00 but none of these transmissions were acknowledged. These were for the aircraft to abandon the grid search and adopt a sonar buoy dropping pattern.

At 11:10 the aircraft was declared missing as no contact of any kind had been made since 10:19, and a search by air and sea was started immediately.

A report of wreckage some 10 miles NW of Portrush was received from an RAF Lancaster at about 12:30, but this turned out to be unconnected and the search was switched the Islay area after 14:15. The wreck was spotted by an FAA Barracuda (one of the last Barracudas still in service at that point) at 15:40 on Beinn Uraraidh and it, and later other aircraft, circled the spot until a ground team arrived at nightfall (approx 19:20 BST).

The aircraft had broken up over a wide area along a roughly ESE to WNW line with wreckage being spread for about 1/3 of a mile. Both crew killed:

Pilot - P4 Donovan James Slater RAN (A37423), aged 20, of Paddington, New South Wales, Australia. Buried Eglinton Cemetery, Northern Ireland.
Navigator - O4 Edward Joseph Edmonds RAN (A37457), aged 21, of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Buried Eglinton Cemetery, Northern Ireland.

In August 2015, most of the wreckage was still where it crashed - see link #3 for photo proof

1. Fleet Air Arm Fixed Wing Aircraft Since 1946 (Ray Sturtivant, Lee Howard & Mick Burrows, Air Britain, 2004 p.279)
2. Aircraft Wrecks: The Walker's Guide : Historic Crash Sites on the Moors and Mountains of the British Isles p.292 By Nick Wotherspoon, Alan Clark, Mark Sheldon
3. http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/scotland/wb336.html
4. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WB
5. http://www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1951.htm
6. http://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/crash_sites/scotland/fairey-firefly-wb336-beinn-uraraidh/

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
13-Jan-2014 05:13	angels one five	Added
14-Oct-2014 14:18	Holschtein	Updated [Operator, Narrative]
05-Jan-2015 01:16	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Registration, Cn, Operator, Location, Nature, Departure airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative]
05-Jan-2015 01:18	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Aircraft type]
08-Jun-2015 05:40	DB	Updated [Time, Operator, Departure airport]
30-May-2018 13:41	angels one five	Updated [Phase, Narrative]
02-Sep-2020 19:21	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]