NZ5901 Delivery Crew photo on eBay

[Antonio]

Link: 

[planewriting]

Sadly, NZ5901 was to have a very short life and was destroyed during its second accident - Refer to www.adf-serials.com.au/nz-serials/nzbristolfreighter.htm

[Dave Homewood]

Bunny Burrows was a No. 487 (NZ) Squadron veteran, and a stalwart of the New Zealand Bomber Command Association.

[Dave Homewood]

This must have been the second ferry flight. Or realistically the second NZ5901. The crash at Maripur destroyed the first one, and they simply took the dataplates off of it and a few items and placed them onto a new build airframe on the production line, I was told (by the signals guy who was onboard when it crashed, Syd Vincent)

[camtech]

Dave, the first NZ5901 was BoC at Whenuapai 21 Dec 1951, but the Maripur crash was 19 Apr 1954.
I would strongly suggest that this crew is the original delivery crew in 1951 as the second delivery crew would not need to be converted onto the type. The story of rebuilding a "new" NZ5901 is very relevant considering the difficulty of recovering the crashed remains and shipping them back to the UK. Even back in those days, a rebuild would have taken time, and it must be remembered that NZ5901 was BoC again at Changi November 1955, before meeting its final demise in December 1956.
An interesting story whatever twists it takes.

[Dave Homewood]

Ah yes you're absolutely right Les. I was mis-remembering it as a delivery flight but now I think about it, they might have been returning from the UK after delivering crews for the Devon Ferry Flight? Does that sound right?

[camtech]

I believe last Devon ferry flights arrived May 1953. So unlikely Devon crews. Not sure why it was back in the UK, but someone here will either have a theory or actually know.

[camtech]

Discovered a bit more of the story - NZ5901 apparently on a trip to UK to uplift spares and as a nav ex???
Blown into a ditch by strong crosswinds. NZ5903 was dispatched from NZ 18 June 1954. Eight days later, '03 left Maripur with the first load of wreckage for Filton, with the last load leaving 10 Aug 1954, with '03 finally returning to NZ 15 September 1954. The remains of '01 were trucked from Filton to Weston-Super-Mere for repair by Western Airways (who had been building B170's for Bristol under contract since early 1953. When '01 was "repaired", it was flown back to Filton 20 September 1955, for test flying. '01 was brough back on charge 7 November 1955 with 41 Sqn at Changi.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Les, that shows how my memory was not up to snuff on this occasion.

I wonder just how much of the wreckage ended up on the new airframe that assumed the same number.

[Antonio]

Some great pics of the crash onthe AFMoNZ site:
"No. 41 Squadron Bristol Freighter NZ5901 after crash landing at Mauripur, Pakistan. Personnel on board were; Flying Officer JB Randle (Captain), Flying Officer DM Lyng (Navigator), Sergeant SA Vincent (Signaller), Sergeant JG Lockwood (Engineer). This aircraft was rebuilt and flown again until it crashed and was written off in 1956."

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