Oceania

Crashed in unknown circumstances. Occupant's fate unknown.

Crashed in unknown circumstances. Occupant's fate unknown.

The flight departed from Essendon Airport at 0050LT. At 0122 hours the flight reported to the Melbourne Flight Service Unit (FSU) that it was then at the Westgate reporting point cruising at 3,500 feet, and its estimated time of arrival at the West Bass reporting point was 0159 hours. At 0145:44 hours VH-SJQ advised the Melbourne FSU 'we have an engine failure on the port side, we have it feathered and are returning to Melbourne'. In response to a request from the FSU the flight advised it was able to maintain height 'at the moment'. At 0148:54 VH-SJQ confirmed that 'the port engine has failed and is feathered' and shortly thereafter advised an estimated time of arrival at the Primegate reporting point en route to Essendon Airport. The Uncertainty Phase of the search and rescue procedures was declared by the Melbourne Air Traffic Control Unit (ATC). At 0151:58 hours the flight advised the Melbourne FSU 'we are making a slow descent to one five zero zero' and, in answer to a query, reported 'we're unable to maintain our height with our rated power'. The Alert Phase of the search and rescue procedures was declared by Melbourne ATC, and a Bristol 170 Mark 31 aircraft en route from Launceston to Essendon Airport was diverted to intercept VH-SJQ and act as an escort. At 0157:46 hours VH-SJQ reported 'four eight DME Wonthaggi', and shortly thereafter, reported 'tracking one eight three on the Wonthaggi VOR'. At 0203:00 hours VH-SJQ transmitted a distress call and reported 'we're passed fifteen hundred feet and still going down'. The position of the aircraft at 0203:57 hours was reported as 'on the one eight six radial Wonthaggi and we are three seven DME'. The Distress phase of the search and rescue procedures was declared by Melbourne ATC and a second northbound aircraft was diverted to intercept VH-SJQ. At 0204:32 hours VH-SJQ reported 'we're down to nine hundred feet at the moment'; at 0207:42 hours, 'at six hundred feet at the moment; at 0212:55 hours, 'two two DME'; at 0213:22 hours, altitude was 200 feet; 0214:31 hours, 'we're down to one hundred feet'; and, at 0215:23 hours, 'this is a final MAYDAY call, we are approximately one eight DME and our altimeters registering zero feet'. Melbourne FSU then transmitted a ditching report of moderate seas with a moderate south-westerly swell; this was acknowledged by VH-SJQ. The escort aircraft then heard further transmissions from VH-SJQ which indicated that both altimeters were reading zero; the crew could see the tops of waves; and DME distances of 16, 15 and 14 were transmitted, the latter being the last transmission heard from the aircraft the time being about 0218 hours. Neither of the escort aircraft sighted VH-SJQ. Post analysis of the meteorological information indicates that the weather in the area of the accident was: surface wind from 280 degrees (True) at 15 knots, scattered cumulus cloud base 2,500 feet, scattered stratus cloud base 1,200 feet, patches of sea fog, visibility 40 kilometres reducing to 4,000 metres in rain showers, temperature 12° Celsius. It is probable that the temperatures at 1,500 feet, 2,500 feet, and 3,500 feet were 9.5°, 7° and 5° Celsius respectively. The conditions were not conducive to the formation of airframe or carburettor icing, and search aircraft in the area did not encounter any such icing.

Crashed in unknown circumstances in Brothers Range, near Cave. The pilot Arthur Rudge and his son aged eight were killed.

Tracker N12-153608 was catapulted from the carrier at 2200 hours on 9 February 1975 to carry out an anti-submarine warfare close support task. The night was unusually dark with no visible horizon so that approximately three hours of the flight were spent in Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC). At 0323 hours the following morning, the aircraft attempted a routine landing using the mirror landing system as an approach aid. In the days preceding the accident, the mirror setting had been changed from an approach slope of 4° to 4.5° but the pilot had not been informed of this. In consequence, the approach was slightly high and fast, the aircraft failed to pick up an arrester wire, an event known as a "bolter", and it subsequently crashed into the sea approximately ten seconds later. All four crew members managed to escape from the sinking aircraft and were rescued uninjured. Accident occurred off the Jervis Bay, in the Tasman Sea.
Source: Phil Thompson

Crashed in unknown circumstances in Raetihi while performing a crop spraying mission. The pilot, sole on board was injured.

Crashed in unknown circumstances in the Ramu River near Annanberg. Crew fate remains unknown.

The airplane took off on the 64th sortie of the day. The loader driver saw the aircraft make a topdressing run along the side of a ridge facing the airstrip. Moments later he saw a cloud of superphosphate dust rising from behind the same ridge. Noticing that the plane's engine noise had ceased the driver ran several hundred yards and found the aircraft had crashed and the pilot appeared to be dead. The Fletcher had been destroyed by impact forces. Fire did not occur. This was not a survivable accident. The position of the accident indicated that the pilot was making a " cleaning up " run across the end of the ridge and while turning steeply to the left through about 270° had the port wing tip strike a spur running off the ridge. The plane pivoted about its wing tip, with the nose impacting the slope heavily and the engine separating from the airframe. The aircraft then dropped about 15 metres in a level attitude into a hollow beyond the spur while travelling backward and coming to rest in a few metres.

Shortly after takeoff from Whitianga Aerodrome, while in initial climb, the twin engine airplane went out of control, stalled and crashed near the Whitianga beach. The aircraft was destroyed and both occupants were killed. They were completing a delivery flight to Auckland when the accident occurred.

Fokker F-27, registered VH-EWL, was operating as East-West Airlines Flight 752/753 from Sydney (SYD) to Orange, Bathurst and back to Sydney. The flight departed from Sydney at 17:06 hours and proceeded to Orange without incident. The flight then departed from Orange at 18:10 hours and, flown by the First Officer, the aircraft cruised at an altitude of 5250 feet which is the lowest safe altitude for the route. There was no cloud below the aircraft and the visibility was unrestricted. At Bathurst the weather was reported as a five knot wind from the north-east and the altimeter setting was 1021 millibars. The crew commenced the descent from a position about 5.5 km west of the aerodrome, in visual conditions, with the lights of the city of Bathurst and the runway lights clearly visible. Initially, it was intended to overfly the aerodrome and then make a left-hand circuit preparatory to landing on runway 17, but when the captain saw what appeared to be a light rain shower slightly east of the runway 35 threshold, and which might have involved penetration during a left-hand circuit to runway 17, he decided to land on runway 35 instead. At 1817:30 hours the captain called Sydney Flight Service reporting that the aircraft had arrived in the Bathurst circuit area. The aircraft, which was still being flown by the First Officer, was turned some 90 degrees to the right and it joined the left downwind leg of the traffic circuit for a landing on runway 35. The aircraft proceeded downwind a little further than is usual then turned onto base leg of the circuit by which time all cockpit checks had been completed except for setting the engine fuel trims to 'full increase'. The captain states that whilst the aircraft was on the base leg he checked that the water methanol lights were on, and that the fuel trim indicators were at 'full increase'. The aircraft was turned onto final approach for landing, at which time the landing gear was down, 26.5 degrees of wing flap had been extended, it was aligned with the runway centre-line and no drift was evident. Flight conditions were smooth. Light rain was then encountered and the windscreen wipers were switched on to operate at slow speed. The flight path appeared to be normal at an airspeed of 110 knots reducing to 100 knots with the rate of descent stabilised at some 700 ft/min. At about this time the aircraft passed over the Great Western Highway (730 metres south of the runway 35 threshold) and at the normal height of about 300 feet above terrain; two or three noticeable turbulence bumps were then encountered and the aircraft commenced to drift to the left of the runway alignment. The aircraft heading was altered a few degrees to the right and the approach was continued in light to moderate turbulence with the rain intensity increasing to heavy as the aircraft approached the runway threshold; the windscreen wipers were then selected to operate at high speed. At approximately 200-250 feet above terrain and prior to reaching the runway threshold, on the command of the Captain, the First Officer initiated a go-around because the aircraft had drifted too far to the left of the runway centre-line to safely effect a landing. The First Officer placed the power levers in the position for maximum power and he rotated the aircraft, by reference to the flight instruments, to the normal body attitude of 8 to 9 degrees for initial climb. The response of the engines appeared normal to the crew and they believed that full 'wet' power was being developed. Immediately after the engine power increased the captain raised the wing flaps from the setting of 26.5 degrees to 16.5 degrees, and he retracted the landing gear. At the commencement of the go-around the aircraft was still in conditions of turbulence and heavy rain and that, initially, the aircraft maintained its altitude; the indicated airspeed then decayed rapidly to 73 knots at which time the aircraft was estimated to be 80-100 feet above the runway. As the indicated airspeed decreased the First Officer lowered the nose of the aircraft slightly but still maintained a climbing attitude. At about this time the captain took hold of his control wheel but the First Officer continued to fly the aircraft by reference to his flight instruments. The indicated airspeed remained at 73 knots for a few seconds then rapidly increased to about 80-85 knots; it was not fluctuating and the turbulence had ceased. The rear fuselage of the aircraft then impacted the ground heavily just outside the boundary of the flight strip, at a point 1240 metres north of the runway 35 threshold, 48 metres to the right of the runway centre-line. The aircraft slid along on the fuselage for a distance of 625 metres during which the starboard engine was torn out of the wing. Cockpit impact drill was initiated by the flight crew during the ground slide and completed when the aircraft came to rest. The crew and passengers evacuated the aircraft at which time there was little or no rain at their location and there was a light breeze from a southerly direction.