[3] The Nimrod AEW was to have assumed the role of the Shackleton's in the mid-1980s, but the technological problems proved "insurmountable", and so that programme was cancelled in favour of the Boeing E-3 Sentry aircraft in December 1986.

[4][5] The squadron was based at RAF Lossiemouth at the time of the crash, and all of their aircraft were named after characters in the children's TV programme, The Magic Roundabout.

Permission was given for a landing from the west and the aircraft was seen to circle at least twice by RAF personnel on the island before it crashed into Maodal, an 800-foot (240 m) high peak near the village of Northton, (at grid reference NF998907).

[12][13] The weather was described as "poor" and WR965 was said to have been flying at a low altitude,[14] (one witness claimed that had the aircraft been 2 feet (0.61 m) higher, then it would have cleared the peak easily).

[15] Despite the remote landscape, emergency services and members of the public were quickly on the scene, but the first police officer said "We came across debris and then some bodies and we knew it was really bad.

As squadron strength reduced in preparation for the replacement of the Shackleton AEW2 by the Sentry AEW 1 (AWACS) crews frequently flew with 4 man radar teams.

[17] Two days later, a private notice question in the House of Commons discussed the matter with some stating that cutbacks in the number of aircraft had led to operational inefficiencies.

[13][21] At 11:34 am, the crew radioed Benbecula tower to inform them that the weather was too bad for an approach, and that they were turning right and climbing to try again; this was the last transmission from the aircraft before the crash.

[22]The Shackleton fleet was due to be replaced by an upgraded Nimrod variant aircraft, but this was dropped in favour of the Sentry AWACS platform.

[23] A memorial is located on Maodal (at grid reference NF997904) and includes the Orange Harvest ESM receiver that was affixed to the top of WR965 Dylan when it crashed.