Stornoway – Inverness

On October 22, 2004 at 11:33 AM, Stornoway – Inverness experienced a crash involving Cessna 406 Caravan, operated by Highland Airways, with the event recorded near Inverness Inverness-shire.

The flight was categorized as cargo and the reported phase was flight at a mountains crash site.

1 people were known to be on board, 1 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 1, crew fatalities: 1, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The aircraft and its commander were concluding the fifth sector of the day when, shortly after starting a descent for Inverness, the aircraft’s rate of descent became unsteady and it started to turn left. The available evidence indicated that the aircraft struck the ground in a steep, left, spiral dive. The extreme fragmentation of the wreckage suggested a high impact speed, probably in the region of 350 kt. Major airframe and powerplant failures were discounted but otherwise, there was insufficient evidence to draw firm conclusions about the reasons for the sudden deviation from controlled flight and secondly, the absence of any evidence consistent with an attempt to recover from the dive. Two safety recommendations made recently to the EASA concerning flight recorders were re-iterated.

Aircraft reference details include registration G-TWIG, MSN 406-0014, year of manufacture 1987.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 57.0833°, -4.6667°.