Qantas DC4 unusual attitude incident 55 years ago?
Long shot - but you never know, some Pprune reader may remember.
Synopsis:
Flight Lieutenant Jack Thomas AFC was a Lincoln captain with No. 10 Squadron at Townsville in the early Fifties. He was awarded the Air Force Cross for his part in flying out survivors of the Mount Lamington volcanic disaster in PNG. I flew many hours as his second pilot on Lincoln bombers and to this day he was one of the smoothest pilots I have ever flown with.
He left the RAAF circa 1954 and joined Qantas as second officer on DC4 freighters including the transportation of Rhesus monkeys from Indonesia to Australia. The story as I recall, was that during a flight over the Arafura Sea, the captain left the cockpit to check on the freight, leaving the first officer and second officer (Jack Thomas) to hold the fort up front.
They were IMC when one of the propellers became uncontrollable (runaway prop). In the ensuing sweat up front someone feathered the wrong prop leaving the DC4 with two engines inoperative on one side. Control of the aircraft was lost and a severe unusual attitude was the result. The captain managed to crawl back into the cockpit and get the DC4 upright again. Maybe they got the wrongly feathered prop back to life again - I don't know.
Qantas held an internal inquiry and sacked Jack Thomas the second pilot despite his undoubted long experience as a Dakota transport captain in the RAAF as well as extensive command hours as a Lincoln captain.
Can any reader suggest where I could find the incident report and also does anyone know what happened to Jack Thomas after he was booted out of Qantas. He would be around 88 years old if he were still alive now. Apparently there were massive recriminations between the three crew members and the most junior in rank (Jack Thomas) wore the blame. Knowing the flying skill of the man I have often wondered what the real story was.