On the night of 16th February 1943, Sgt Don Franko of
No 14 PAFU at RAF Fraserburgh, Scotland, took off on a
night training flight, unexpected tail winds and cloud
forced him off course, and in the dead of night and almost
out of fuel,he was forced to make a wheels up landing on
the only piece of land in sight, on the tiny Isle of Auskerry,
Orkney.
After spending the night on the isle in the plane, he was
eventually greeted with a good deal of caution by two
lighthouse keepers, George Mainland and Peter McCormick,
and owing to bad weather in the days which followed, he
spent all of Christmas on the isle, eventually being picked
up by motor launch on the 28th of December.
Oxford HN600 - Orkney
