50th Anniversary of Hudson crash at Tennant Creek

[Fris B. Fairing]

September 24 this year marks the 50th anniversary of this tragic accident and Tennant Creek Rotary will be unveiling a memorial plaque at TC Airport on the day. The organisers are particularly keen to make contact with families of the victims. Further details here:

Hudson VH-AGE

[PLovett]

Hi Fris, was that the one where the pilot may have been having a malarial attack?

I was based in Tennant for 14 months and had forgotten all about this crash otherwise would have made an effort to have a look at the crash site.

[Stanwell]

It was a shame about the young boy who was asked along for the ride.

[onetrack]

The full crash report is below. I find it strange that a combination of a broken aileron control chain, in conjunction with an onset of sudden illness in the pilot, is suggested as the possible cause of the crash.
The chances of both events happening simultaneously would initially appear to be in the hundreds-of-millions-to-one, possibility range.
What is interesting, is that the firewall shutoff lever for the starboard engine was found in the closed position, and it was deduced that the lever had been moved to this position before impact.
Yet in the final analysis, this starboard engine shutoff lever set to the "off" position, doesn't rate a mention?
I wonder why this only received a mention in one paragraph, and the glaring lever position was then apparently ignored in the analysis?

http://www.airwaysmuseum.com/Downloa...son-VH-AGE.pdf

[B772]

September 22 1966 saw the crash of Ansett-ANA Flight 149 a Viscount 832 service about 5 minutes from landing at Winton after loss of control at about 4,000 feet due to fire damage of a wing spar. A very sad month and year for Australian aviation.

(If the crew knew the seriousness of the situation they could have landed in the 'outback' while they still had some control)

[Fris B. Fairing]

The Viscount is mentioned in the link in post #1. One of the Adastra technicians on VH-AGE was booked to travel home on the Viscount but he stayed on at Tennant Creek to work on the aeromag equipment on the Hudson. His seat on the Viscount was taken by another Adastra employee.

Plovett, the wreckage was moved from the crash site to the airport and subsequently to the town tip I am told.

[tail wheel]

It is 68 years since Guinea Air Traders Lockheed L-414 Hudson VH-ALA crashed in Lae PNG with 37 killed.

[Stanwell]

Taily,
37 POB a Hudson?
It seems that, when transporting locals, aircraft in PNG cubed out before they grossed out.
Sad, nonetheless.

[tail wheel]

No point in hiding facts of history..........

Up to the early to mid 1960s, native labourers were charged by weight whilst Taubadas and Sinabadas (Expats.....) were charged fares. Native labourers were carried as freight, seated on the aircraft floor under a cargo net.

All the Hudson passengers were natives so I'm guessing were probably floor loaded...

Allegedly, the record in PNG for a DC3 was 120 POB.

DCA finally banned the practice and shortly after banned side saddle seating in DC3s.

[Centaurus]

Native labourers were carried as freight, seated on the aircraft floor under a cargo net.

They were bloody lucky to have a cargo net. My very first flight was in 1948 in a Lockheed Hudson freighter belonging to the Sydney Morning Herald Flying Services based at Camden NSW. The captain was the manager (chief pilot) Harry Purvis AFC - during the war he was the former chief instructor in the RAAF on Hudsons. Pre-war he flew Smithy's Southern Cross.

Harry was to conduct a short test flight after an engine change and invited a few of the ground staff at Camden along for the flight. I was a general hand age 17 and jumped at the chance. It was a bare bones freighter with no seats and no safety belts except for the two pilots. If I recall correctly, about six people including me, piled into the Hudson and sprawled on the metal floor. The noise of the engines at take off power was painful as there was no cladding. We just hung on to any protuberance we could find. Any weight and balance that Harry may have drawn up was useless of course

We were airborne for about 30 minutes on the test flight which included a prop feathering test on the new engine. I wasn't told how to clear my ears on descent and they hurt like hell on descent. Neither can I recall any form of passenger safety briefing in those days. No cargo net on that trip, either. In fact I don't recall cargo nets were ever used either in the Hudsons or DC3 freighters. We simply packed in the newspapers already bound in hessian bundles and placed them on the floor of the aircraft. Approaching the dropping zone the co-pilot would leave his seat and move down the back of the fuselage and store the selected bundles at the rear door of the DC3 or the Hudson.

The crash of one Hudson near Muswellbrook which stalled while turning in on the dropping run, was partially attributed to the co-pilot and newspapers bundles being right down the back at the rear entrance door causing a rear centre of gravity problem coupled with a tight turn