The lost Sandringham,Gold Coast

[Aye Ess]

Sandringham (civil version of the Sunderland) VH-BRD "Princess of Cairns" sank off the Gold Coast 1st Feb 1954. Numerous searches have been made,but nothing found of the airliner.

The flying boat was being towed from the Brisbane River to the Tweed River to be converted into a floating restaurant as its flying days were over.

The sea conditions were bad & the operation sheltered in the Southport Broadwater for a few days,but as the weather & sea conditions appeared to be abating,the tow continued.

Unfortunately,the weather & conditions worsened,the flying boat took on water & sank off Coolangatta.

Does any of our senior ppruners remember this event or heard the story?

I am an artist who's interest lies with aviation art & I'm percolating an idea of doing a painting based on this incident.

[forget]

That was one unlucky aircraft!

VH-BRD (http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac1/austb/VH-BRD.html)

[Jabawocky]

Can only imagine it did not sink like a stone and drifted a long way in the ocean currents to goodness knows where.

[Aye Ess]

Exactly Jaba. It had been stripped of all reusable bits,the empty fuel tanks would have added to the buoyancy,it was intact as it submerged,ie it hadn't broken up upon impact with the water. Water, being much denser than air,and those huge wings,once submerged,that airliner would have glided for a very long way & who knows,could have gently alighted on the sea bed.

[Aye Ess]

http://i1032.photobucket.com/albums/a401/alan_spears/VH-BRD.jpg?t=1295687851

VH-BRD sank off Coolangatta 1st Feb 1954

Acrylic on stretched canvas 40 x 50cm

[tail wheel]

How do you paint those paintings so quickly? Surely there is more than a day or two to complete the painting? :confused:

[Aye Ess]

True Tailwheel.....the F27 was almost complete except for the logo light (or lack thereof). But this Sandringham just seemed to flow really well,so a couple of long days & it was done. I display them at a Brisbane craft market every Sunday. It is SO amazing who stops to talk aeroplanes.....daggy bogans in tracky dacks turn out to be Boeing skippers & old grannys talk lovingly about being hostesses ( aka flight attendants) on DC3s & Convairs.

[colin cowie]

I noticed a post on this story from 2008. I have just spoken to a family member who watched it sink if anyone is still interested in this subject. Cheers, Colin.

[mcoates]

There are dozens of fishing boats going up and down this area every night. There may be a chance that some of these skippers know where the debris is because they would stay away so they did not foul their nets.