Butler was taken over by Ansett in September 1958. VH-BAT was reregistered VH-RMO in May 1963. Scrapped at Melbourne July 1976.
B772. Thread related to VH-BAT, not VH-BUT. VH-BUT had the major structural crack in the wing and was permanently grounded September 1967.
Interestingly VH-BAT/VH-RMO had another interesting incident on 11 December 1967:
Damaged on landing at Essendon Airport, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Department of Civil Aviation - Air Safety Incident Report by K Eddy: -
At approximately 05:30 hours Ansett-ANA Captain L Mellor contacted the airport authorities and requested a visual check of the East-West runway for signs of propeller strike markings as there were approximately two inches of metal missing from the tips of the No.4 propeller.
This was discovered by the ground crew as soon as the aircraft arrived at the stand and they notified Captain Heinrich Theodor Hasselo, as he left the aircraft.
A check of runway 26 was carried out and nine blade slashes were found commencing at the 4,600 foot mark from the runway threshold.
Viscount c/n 97 operational record