Shorts Sunderland G-AGES, British Overseas Airways Corporations

On the morning of July 28th 1943, the BOAC flight from Lisbon in Portugal to Foynes in Ireland crashed into the slopes of Mount Brandon in County Kerry. Of the 25 men on board, 10 lost their lives and the remaining 15 crew and passengers suffered injuries. The story of the 25 men on Sunderland G-AGES is told in the Adobe PDF files linked below. The file is quite large so I have decided not to transfer it to HTML format. If you have any difficulty accessing this files please contact me to let me know. You will need the free Adobe Reader software which I have linked to below.

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The crew of seven aboard this aircraft were a mix of BOAC employees and Royal Air Force personel seconded to the Corporation to fly what was a military flying boat.


The passengers were an wide mix of serving British Commonwealth airmen and officers who had been interned for a while in Portugal, Officers of the British Army returning from service in Africa and civilans travelling for work related to the war effort. The final passenger was a Swiss government courier, on his way to take a flight to America from Foynes.

If you are related to or have any extra information, especially a photo of any of the men listed above I would be very greatful if you could contact me to help complete the record for this aircraft.

  • The Foynes Flying Boat Museum display for G-AGES, July 2007
  • The information card from the museum, July 2007
  • Part of one of the floats from the aircraft.
  • One of G-AGES four Pegasus engines.
  • A prisoner of war letter, recovered from the crash site. G-AGES carried thousands of letters and cards.
  • A google maps extract showing the slope where the three crashes occured.
  • One of G-AGES engines sitting among the rocks, looking out over the slope she flew on her last flight.
  • Another of G-AGES engines with front mounted exhaust ring, lying as it fell on a rock.
  • G-AGES engine, with Katie's rose.
  • A piece of aircraft structure in the grass next to the rocks.
  • Katie and Graham Frazer along with local man Seamus Fitzgerald who guided us up the mountain.

The gentleman at the following Flickr album has completed a model of G-AGES from a partially complete kit taht he purchased. It must be said it looks fabulous.

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