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Post by flycookie on Jan 5, 2009 14:20:05 GMT 12
New Year's Eve marked the 40th anniversary of the crash of MMA Vickers Viscount VH-RMQ, 30 miles from Port Hedland WA. It remains the worst crash in Oz aviation history, all 26 aboard were killed. I am acquainted with a woman in Oz whose brother was in the plane, and know well of the adverse consequences that death had on his/her family. In his coffin were three teeth, a piece of shoe heel and a somewhat melted belt buckle. His sister is now 70, with osteoperosis and a dodgy heart. Because of the high spirits and festivities of New Year's Eve, the anniversary has always stuck out more than it otherwise would. Oddly enough, years later, a Civil Aviation Department bigwig retired to the house next door, and just in neighbourly chit-chat she discovered that he was in Hedland tower that day (the flight was inbound, and crashed into what was then Indee Station). Anyway, I sent her an email the other day, just to see if she was well enough to go and change the flowers at his grave, and so on. Here's part of the reply (yes, I have her permission to quote it here): > Yes I am fit enough. Did my duty. Not the best part of the > year as you > understand. > Much to my surprise the newspapers left the matter alone > this year. Thought > they would make a big deal as it was fortieth anniversary. > Much better without > it splashed all over the papers. No particular reason for posting this, really, except maybe to show that when these things happen, it is possible to put the mourning aside, remember the memory, and move on. Here's the plane, a month before the crash.  And this, the only recognisable part left.  Finally, someone somewhere is a dab hand with Google maps. Route corridor is correct for the flight in question.  |
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Post by FlyNavy on Jan 5, 2009 14:55:11 GMT 12
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Post by yak2 on Jan 5, 2009 16:21:13 GMT 12
The Viscount introduced the turbo prop age in Australia but had a very bad airline safety record. At least 3 broke up in flight.......an unfortunate cost of progress.
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Post by flyjoe180 on Jan 6, 2009 10:21:02 GMT 12
The Viscount didn't seem to have such problems in NZ? Apart from the odd runway overrun that is.
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Post by woodinhead on Jan 18, 2009 16:27:45 GMT 12
I could never find any reference to the NAC viscount that had a mishap at Whenuapai late 50s early 60s, though I saw it being recovered and taken to an Airforce hangar for repair. rumour was that on roll out the pilot retracted gear instead of flaps and the nose wheel and port main collapsed aircraft veered onto the grass stopping short of the control tower
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Post by planeimages on Jan 18, 2009 20:43:48 GMT 12
Scary to think back. I flew on the first TAA Viscount flight from Brisbane to Townsville in early 1995. There were only two Viscounts being operated at that time and both subsequently crashed, one being the aircraft under discussion The other crashed into Botany Bay in a storm. One has to wonder if the latter broke up for the same reason that RMQ lost its wing in WA.
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Post by FlyNavy on Jan 18, 2009 20:59:02 GMT 12
aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19611130-1Accident description Date: 30 NOV 1961 Type: Vickers 720 Viscount Operator: Ansett-ANA Registration: VH-TVC C/n / msn: 46 First flight: 1954 Total airframe hrs: 16946 Crew: Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 4 Passengers: Fatalities: 11 / Occupants: 11 Total: Fatalities: 15 / Occupants: 15 Airplane damage: Written off Airplane fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: Botany Bay, NSW (Australia) Phase: En route (ENR) Nature: Domestic Scheduled Passenger Departure airport: Sydney-Kingsford Smith Airport, NSW (SYD/YSSY), Australia Destination airport: Canberra Airport, ACT (CBR/YSCB), Australia Narrative: The Ansett Viscount crashed into Botany Bay, nine minutes after takeoff from Sydney. PROBABLE CAUSE: "The cause of the accident was the failure in flight of the starboard outer wing in upward bending due to tensile overloading of the lower spar boom at station 323, probably induced by a combination of manoeuvre and gust loading when the speed of the aircraft was in excess of 260kts. The circumstances and available evidence carry a strong implication that the in-flight structural failure was preceded by a loss of control with a consequential increase in speed to at least 260 knots. The most probable explanation for the loss of control is that the aircraft entered an area of unexpected turbulence of such severity as to deprive the pilots of full recovery." Sources: This information is not presented as the Flight Safety Foundation or the Aviation Safety Network’s opinion as to the cause of the accident. It is preliminary and is based on the facts as they are known at this time.
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Post by FlyNavy on Jan 18, 2009 21:00:02 GMT 12
Long 'Accident Investigator' personal story here: www.airwaysmuseum.com/Vickers%20Viscount%20VH-TVC%20crash%20Botany%20Bay.htm"The wreckage examination produced absolutely no evidence of fault in the aircraft other than the failure of the lower wing spar boom on the starboard side under conditions of extreme overload. The Viscount series of aircraft were built by Vickers-Armstrong under the "safe-life" design principle. In other words, the aircraft was strong enough to resist any serious structural failure during the whole of its designated life. The competing and now widely adopted principle of "fail-safe" in aircraft design contemplates some failures, but there will always be redundancy or back-up in either design or maintenance procedures to avoid a catastrophic failure." |
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Post by woodinhead on Jan 19, 2009 17:01:32 GMT 12
I remember while flying Auckland to Wellington years ago in a Viscount the corrugations on the wings upper surface was quite noticeable under flight load but these disappeared after landing.
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Post by markpilkington on Jan 20, 2009 23:06:22 GMT 12
Sadly RMQ isn't Australia's worst Air Crash, (an unfortunate credential to earn), and a tragic loss of lives occured across a number of major accidents, may they all rest in peace.
USAAF C-47 41-7733
27 people died when C-47-DL Dakota, #41-7733, c/n 4212, VH-CCE of the 40th Troop Carrier Squadron of the 317th Transport Group Transport, piloted by H. Wilson, crashed into Cleveland Bay south east of Townsville at 5.20 am on 7 August 1943, shortly after take-off at 5.00 am from Garbutt airfield in Townsville. Their next destination was Archerfield airfield in Brisbane.
The C-47 was carrying Lt. Hawver of the 499th Bomb Squadron of the 345th Bomb Group and twenty ground personnel and enlisted flight crewmen from the 500th Bomb Squadron of the 345th Bomb Group.
The personnel were on their way to Sydney, for a brief R & R while their B-25s were being modified to low-level strafers at the Townsville Air Depot. Hawver, the pilot of another aircraft, "Hell's Belles", had rushed out to the flight line in a jeep, just barely getting aboard before the plane took off. The aircraft belonged to the Australian Directorate of Air Transport.
ANA DC-4 VH-ANA
The ANA Skymaster Amana crash was an aircraft crash which occurred near Perth, Western Australia on 26 June 1950. At 9:50pm, a Douglas DC-4 Skymaster plane named Amana, operated by Australian National Airways, departed Guildford aerodrome (now Perth Airport) in Perth, Western Australia, heading for Adelaide. Soon after departure, the airport lost radio contact with the plane, which crashed at 10:12pm.
A pilot flying the McDouall Stuart, another Skymaster plane operated by Trans Australia Airlines, spotted a fire in bushland between Chidlow and York, and reported the coordinates.Rescue workers located the Amana, which had crashed in dense scrub on Berrybrow Estate, 22 kilometres west of York. 28 people died instantly in the crash, including 23 passengers and five crew members. Two men who lived on the property were first on the scene of the widely scattered burning wreckage to discover an elderly man walking around dazed with burnt clothes. This 67 year old Adelaide businessman was the only person to survive the initial crash, but died five days later in a Perth hospital. Eighteen bodies were so badly burnt they were not recognisable.
TAA F-27 VH-TFB
The TAA Fokker Friendship disaster is the second largest loss of life in an Australian aircraft accident, with 29 deaths, after the Bakers Creek air crash in 1943. It occurred on 10 June 1960 at Mackay, Queensland, Australia. The twin-engined passenger plane, a Fokker Friendship belonging to Trans Australia Airlines (TAA), registration VH-TFB, was operating TAA Flight 538 from Brisbane. While on final approach to land at night and in foggy conditions, it flew into the ocean south-east of Mackay. It was TAA's first fatal accident in the 14 years since the airline was founded.
At 29 deaths, it remains Australia's largest loss of life in a civilian air disaster, as of 2008. In-flight voice recorders were still in development in 1960, and the Board of Inquiry recommended that these be installed in Australian commercial airliners when they were available.
USAAF B-17 40-2072
The Bakers Creek air crash was an aviation disaster which occurred on 14 June 1943, when a USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft crashed shortly after take-off at Bakers Creek, Queensland approximately 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) south of Mackay, killing 40 of the 41 military service personnel on board. One person on board survived.[1] The crash is Australia's worst aviation disaster by death toll and was the worst accident involving a transport aircraft in the south-western Pacific during World War II.[2]
The aircraft, a Boeing B-17C, serial/tail number 40-2072, known as "Miss Every Morning Fixin" took off from Mackay Airfield[3] just before dawn at about 6 am in foggy conditions, headed for Port Moresby. Soon after, it made a low altitude turn and a few minutes later, crashed. The cause of the crash remains a mystery.
The six crew and 35 passengers were returning to New Guinea after an R&R break. The aircraft was part of the United States Fifth Air Force and was operated by the 46th Troop Carrier Squadron, part of the 317th Troop Carrier Group.[2] It had formerly been one of the B-17s sent to the Philippines in the autumn of 1941 with the 19th Bomb Group and had been converted into a transport after suffering heavy battle damage in a mission on 25 December 1941.
The survivor was Foye Kenneth Roberts who passed away at Wichita Falls, Texas on 4 February 2004.
Due to wartime censorship, nothing of the incident was reported in the media. The Daily Mercury, Mackay's newspaper, reported the following day that a visiting American serviceman had been injured, as well as an editorial expressing the sentiments of locals who knew what had happened. Nothing more appeared in the local media until after the war had ended, in February 1946.[4] Victims' relatives received War Department telegrams which said little more than the serviceman had been killed in an air crash in the south west Pacific.
Australia's second worst aviation disaster, the 1960 TAA Fokker Friendship disaster, coincidentally also occurred at Mackay.
Regards
Mark Pilkington
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