Oceania

Crash location was 57 miles south of Camooweal near the NT/Queensland border. TAA Captain Richard Paul was relieving TAA Captain Harry Moss as resident NTMS pilot at Alice Springs, NT. Paul had just departed Camooweal to return to Alice Springs, carrying the doctor and nurse. They had been asked to look out for a missing stockman on horseback. Some 40 miles out of Camooweal, the pilot sighted a lone horseman. Preparations were being made in the circling aircraft to drop a message in order to establish the rider’s identity when the aircraft struck level ground near the Border Fence and slid some 85 metres before coming to rest in a substantially damaged condition. The horse rider ignored the circling aircraft and rode away, unaware the aircraft had crashed. An RFDS Drover and ground parties reached the site later the same day. The two passengers were returned to Camooweal in a vehicle. However Dick Paul needed urgent medical attention, and was flown to Mount Isa hospital by the RFDS Drover. His condition required urgent transfer to Brisbane, and no airline flight was available. A BOAC Britannia on scheduled service Darwin-Brisbane agreed to divert to collect him but Mount Isa runways were unsuitable and nearest location with required runway length was Cloncurry. A TAA DC-3 carried him from Mount Isa to Cloncurry, but the Britannia's main wheels broke through the taxiway surface pavement after landing. It was unable to move. With no other choice, Captain Paul was re-loaded on board the TAA DC-3 which then took him to Brisbane, where he recovered in hospital. The Britannia was stranded at Cloncurry for 3 days and its passengers accommodated with families in town.
Source:
http://www.goodall.com.au/australian-aviation/drover/drover.htm

Crashed in unknown circumstances at Ngataki while performing fumigations. The pilot H. J. Duinstra was killed.

GSA pilot Peter Manser was making a down-hill takeoff on the sloping strip, carrying a heavy load of sawn timber. Just before becoming airborne the port engine suddenly lost all power, causing the aircraft to swing violently to the left and roll towards the Qantas terminal building and freight shed. The Qantas agent Mrs. Ivy Crawford saw it approaching and ran through the passenger room out on to the airfield and jumped over an embankment as the aircraft struck the building. The port wing sliced through the wooden structure, the roof collapsing as the Junkers kept rolling on to a road, tearing off its rear fuselage before Manser could bring it to a stop. The fuselage was broken into three sections and 12 feet was smashed off the port wing.
Source:
http://www.goodall.com.au/australian-aviation/junkers ju52/junkersju52.html

Shortly after takeoff from runway 30 at Canberra Airport, while on a local training mission, the left engine lost power. Due to a technical issue on the regulator, the crew was unable to shot down the engine and to feather the propeller. The pilot-in-command continued to the south and while approaching Mt Pleasant, the airplane went out of control and crashed in flames at Duntroon, west of the airport. The aircraft was destroyed upon impact and all four crew members were killed.
Crew:
Cpt H. N.MacDonald, pilot,
F/Sgt N. H. Charlton, copilot,
Sgt I. A. Makrill, navigator,
Sgt M. C. Coombe, signaler.

ZK-BHT had been fitted with a 6.6 hp Kohler 4-stroke, fan cooled, Auxiliary Power Unit. The purpose of this unit was to drive the aircraft's spray system. This arrangement was used with only moderate success in the application of non-inflammable liquids from the air. After trials final approval for the use of the system was granted by the Airworthiness Division of the CAA. At some point of time after the 15th of January 1957 the aircraft operator began to use the aircraft for the application, for burning-off purposes, of diesel fuel. At no point, it seems, did they inform or seek the approval of the Airworthiness Division of their intention to use the aircraft to spray an inflammable liquid. At 1345 on the day of the accident diesel oil was loaded into the plane in order to disperse the oil on a scrub-covered ravine on a farm in the Omahina Valley near Waverley. After the fifth sortie the pilot told his loader driver that during the flight he had operated the hopper jettison control briefly in order to put a heaver deposit of diesel on an area of thick scrub. The cockpit, he said, had immediately filled with dense, black smoke making him think the aircraft had caught fire. An inspection of the interior of the fuselage aft of the hopper showed that it was coated in a film of diesel oil extending back to the tail cone. There was an oil film also on the underside of the fuselage.The two mopped up the oil as best they could, tightened up a leaking connection in the supply pipe to one of the spray booms, and the operation was continued. Two further sorties were carried out uneventfully but on the eighth sortie as the Fletcher was climbing out of the ravine in order to land on the strip, which was located some 300 to 400 feet above the level of the ravine, two witnesses who had been observing the operation for some time saw a plume of flame being emitted from the underside of the fuselage about midway between the nose and the tail. At this point the aircraft was only seconds away from landing. The plane leveled out and turning 90 degrees to the right disappeared behind a ridge. After turning away from the approach to the airstrip the aircraft plowed through trees on steep tree-covered slope, then dived almost vertically to the ground before subsiding to a more level position. The right wing was detached and a small fire broke out in the engine bay. This ignited fuel flowing out of the broken fuel line from the right wing tank which in turn was augmented by diesel released from the hopper when the jettison system was sheared off. Also adding to the blaze was a quantity of petrol from the tank of the Kohler APU when the vent pipe from the small tank was broken off.

Crashed in unknown circumstances while conducting a crop spraying flight. The pilot, sole on board, was injured and the aircraft was written off.

Crashed on takeoff for unknown reason. There were no injuries.

The single engine aircraft departed from a farm-strip at 1325LT for a local topdressing mission, carrying 712 kg of lime. Fifteen minutes later, while flying at low altitude in a cul-de-sac, the pilot encountered difficulties to gain height. The aircraft then made a turn, struck a tree, crashed in flames and came to rest upside down. The aircraft was destroyed by a post crash fire and the pilot, Kenneth Simpson, was killed.

On final approach to Enewetak Atoll, the four engine aircraft was too low and struck the ground 400 feet short of runway threshold. On impact, the undercarriage were sheared off and the aircraft crash landed. There were no casualties but the airplane was written off.

Went out of control and crashed upside down in a field located in Wairarapa, in the suburb of Christchurch. The pilot was injured and the aircraft was destroyed.