Much conjecture has been put on the fate of this particular aircraft but despite its eminent passenger it was only one of many wartime sorties to meet a sudden and violent end upon the unforgiving mountains of Scotland. It would appear inconceivable that there truly was an act of deliberate sabotage carried out. It has been shown that there was no calculated pre-selection of crew members reputed to have pro-German sympathies. Any covert establishment action designed to utilise an expendable crew would surely ensure that the aircraft was lost over the North Atlantic and not laid open like an obscene post mortem upon a Scottish hillside.

    If it was held paramount to rid the country of a particular individual, including a member of the Royal family, allegedly given to pro-German sentiment, it would no doubt have been done in the ruthless manner typical of any British establishment under wartime conditions. Edward VIII, had he not abdicated to marry Wallis Warfield , would undoubtedly have been a candidate. Edward  was quite open in his admiration of Germany under Hitler and in turn, Hitler saw Edward as his potential ally in the New World order. It was certain that pre war, the Duke, in common with a sizeable minority in the United Kingdom, did exhibit a degree of empathy with the emergent political power in Berlin. Whether this view survived the first three years of total war is open to debate.

    In an earlier enigma, the flight of Rudolf Hess in his BF 110 on the 10th May the previous year, had sought to make contact with the Duke of Hamilton at Dungavel House on the Hamilton estate. It has been reasonably construed that the intention of Hess was to utilise the influence of Hamilton to urge the British government to seek an accommodation with Hitler. What is not clear at this stage, is whether  Hess was acting on his own misguided initiative or under clear directives from Berlin. Certainly, a cessation of hostilities would have released Hitler's Panzer Gruppes in western Europe for use against what he saw as the real enemy, the Soviet Union. The exact extent of the relationship between Hess and the Duke of  Hamilton has never been established. Certainly, they knew of each other having been both present at a dinner given for various dignitaries during the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. It is also known that Hamilton was on close personal terms with Professor Karl Haushofer, the German geopolitician and his son, Albrecht, an official in the German foreign office. Albrecht Haushofer was also covertly a member of the pre-war German resistance to Hitler and had stayed with Hamilton at Dungavel House in April 1937. Hess, as the nominated successor to Hitler, had discussed with the Haushofers the sought means of isolating Britain politically with a view to forcing a negotiated peace. The outcome of these discussions was the nominating of Hamilton by Albrecht as the potential lever within the British establishment with access to the King and Winston Churchill. Albrecht Haushofer was to write a letter to Hamilton proposing a meeting with Hess in Lisbon, however Hess initiated the well chronicled events in his own destiny and ultimately the incarceration  of Albrecht in a Gestapo prison in Berlin.

    The subsequent Court of Enquiry under the chairmanship of Wing Commander Warren Kay, apportioned blame for the accident upon the captain of the aircraft, Frank Goyen. They specified poor airmanship in failing to follow the course given to him in the flight plan and failing to make height to ensure a sufficient safety margin to clear anticipated high ground on the specified track. Weather conditions were not gauged to be so adverse that a pilot of Goyen's experience should encounter any difficulty in coping with them. The aircraft's engines were examined after the crash and found to be set at full throttle with propellers at coarse pitch, thus indicating that the aircraft was still climbing when it hit the obstruction and not in cruising configuration. This fact was not made clear at the enquiry but was noted by members of the 63rd Maintenance Unit whilst clearing the debris. 

    An experienced pilot such as Goyen was well capable of following a prescribed course. It must remain open to question whether the "Distant-Reading" gyro-magnetic compass settings, entrusted to Pilot Officer Saunders, the navigator temporarily attached to the crew, had been properly completed. This system known as the DR Compass, was a new device which had been installed in MKIII Sunderlands a short time previous to the flight of W4026. This type of equipment was intended to overcome the problems of magnetic field fluctuations to which the earlier cockpit instruments were susceptible. It was mounted far back in the fuselage away from most magnetic mass and the information was electrically transmitted to repeater units in the cockpit, in front and to the right of the control column, and also in the navigators position. The navigator was responsible for for setting the changes in the magnetic variation pertaining to the latitude of the aircraft.

    In 1942, North East Scotland had a magnetic variation of 13 degrees west of true north. Such a large degree of variation would, if not eliminated by adjustment, have a considerable effect on an aircraft's heading. It must be remembered that here was a slow moving aircraft, struggling to make altitude and entering conditions of poor visibility. The intended course from Tarbat Ness, a point having been attained by visual sighting, would take the aircraft on a course parallel to the coastline. A 13 degree error combined with an adverse wind direction would have brought an aircraft over land after only about 30 miles flying from the first navigational point. The Strath of Berriedale is just such a distance from Tarbat Ness.  

    The findings of a Court of Enquiry as revealed in Hansard on October 7th 1942, apportioned blame for the crash on the captain of the aircraft, "Who changed flight plan for reasons unknown and descended through cloud without making sure he was over water and crashed".