Scotavia, you’re not alone.
I think he has drawn his conclusion by a literal translation of the report, which isn’t helped as it doesn’t have any witness statements.
The file includes the usual copies of the clearance form, flight plan, weather charts and weather reports from reporting station along the route. The planned route was intended to take the aircraft N-S over the western side of Skye, however I think he has mis-interpreted the following from the synopsis
“#44-83325 was observed flying contact below an 800 ft ceiling with visibility of about 5 miles. He approached the north-east end of the Isle of Skye and followed the shore for a short distance. A very few seconds later there was a loud explosion and fire was observed to roll down the mountain-side. The point where the aircraft turned inland is extremely precipitious, rising to 2000ft in roughly three miles”
If you take that with the flight plan (as it should have been) it could sound like the a/c was flying W-E but that isn’t what it says. It only says that the aircraft followed the coast and “turned inland”, well as Skye is an island it has more than one coast-line and taken in combination with the description of the terrain points to an E-W track across the northern end of the island. The terrain rises much more gently from W-E.
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