Aircrash info sought

Sir,

I am an aviation historian/ writer and author of four volumes of a book titled: Lost to the Isles about aircraft accidents on the Scottish Islands between 1914 and 1990.

I am researching flying accidents round the Kintyre peninsula and wonder if Courier readers could help?

The majority of these accidents occurred during the Second World War so finding eye witnesses still alive

will be a difficult task, though stories may have been passed down.

I have amassed quite a lot of information on these accidents and am aware of research by Duncan McArthur, Angus Martin and others.

I have accessed many official documents, newspapers and ancestry databases for biographies on the airmen to accompany accounts on these accidents in a book.

Though I visited Kintyre last month to investigate some of the crash sites, visit the war graves and make enquiries, I live in Cheshire so can’t readily access any newspapers that might be held there.

One particular accident that has eluded me is that of an F-111 jet from Upper Heyford.

Following a bird strike and engine failure on May 15 1973, the two crew ejected via their capsule and the jet crashed near the road between Claonaig and Skipness.

I am told by a man in Skipness that the story appeared in the press, though I have been unable to find coverage in any online newspapers.