QANTAS VH-EAC L-1049 accident at Mauritius

[Stubenfliege 2]

Dear all,

I´m looking for some kind of accident report about the take off crash of the QANTAS L-1049 at Mauritius on the 24.08.1960. I would assume that there was some sort of investigation, but I haven´t found any "official" documentation..

I have found some information on Australian websites, for example some articles from Mr. Job on the CAA Website. I have also asked the ATSB, unfortunaly with kind, but negative result. So any help is appreciated.

Best regards,
Stubenfliege

[DaveReidUK]

I think that the chances of finding a contemporaneous investigation report of a 1960 accident on the Internet are fairly slim ...

What kind of information are you looking for that isn't covered in Macarthur Job's article ?

[wakefield]

Short story here. I suspect you’ve already seen this.
https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19600824-1

[DaveReidUK]

Short story here. I suspect you’ve already seen this.
https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19600824-1

And here's the source of ASN's report.

[Lookleft]

That accident is why any discussion about Qantas not losing an aircraft has to be qualified with the caveat-"In the jet age"

[Peter Fanelli]

That accident is why any discussion about Qantas not losing an aircraft has to be qualified with the caveat-"In the jet age"
And it's amazing how much money they were prepared to spend on repairs to avoid QF1 in Bangkok ruining that.

[mustafagander]

Peter F,
As is customary in these events, the insurers are the sole arbiters of what happens to the airframe. Theirs and theirs alone is the decision to write off or repair.
QF did not make that decision nor had they the power.

[Duchess_Driver]

Surely it only becomes the insurers property once a claim has been paid. In the (unlikely?) event that QF don’t make a claim and pay all outstanding bills then the insurers can whistle, surely.

[megan]

The insurers would take the cheapest option surely. If it's cheaper to repair than write off, that's how it works on my car insurance, so the insurers are the sole arbiters as pointed out by mustafagander. Why would the airline not make a claim, they pay an insurance premium for a reason.

[treadigraph]

Weird, I was under the impression for years that Qantas lost an HS125 in the 1960s yet looking that up now, it appears totally erroneous. I've chucked out my old copies of Bizjets which would have been my source. I know the South African AF lost three in a formation display crash (hit a peak in cloud during a formation display) but I was sure there was an airline crew trainer loss too.

[megan]

Nothing wrong with your memory treaders, except Qantas had sold the aircraft to a UK operator G-OBOB. Crashed at night Colombia, Montana, USA one killed one serious. From accident report.

THE ACFT WAS EN ROUTE AT 31,000 FT, WHEN THE LOW PRESSURE FUEL FILTER WARNING LIGHT ILLUMINATED. THE PLT DIVERTED TOWARD COLUMBIA, MO, BUT BEFORE REACHING COLUMBIA, BOTH ENGINES LOST POWER. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT CRASHED ABOUT 2 MI EAST OF THE ARPT. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE FUEL WAS CONTAMINATED WITH WATER. THE FUEL FILTER DEICING SYSTEM WAS OPERATIONAL, BUT A POST-ACDNT EXAM REVEALED THE DEICING TANK WAS EMPTY. THIS WAS THE 2ND FLT SINCE THE DEICE TANK HAD BEEN SERVICED. THE MANUFACTURER'S INFO INDICATED THE SUPPLY TANK SHOULD HAVE PROVIDED ABOUT 3 TO 4 HRS OF FILTER DEICING OPERATION.
Probable Cause and Findings
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be:
INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT BY THE PILOT(S), WATER CONTAMINATION OF THE FUEL, LOW LEVEL OF DEICE FLUID (METHANOL) IN THE DEICE TANK, AND SUBSEQUENT ICE BLOCKAGE OF THE FUEL FILTERS. DARKNESS WAS A RELATED FACTOR.

[DaveReidUK]

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/600x384/mvh_ece_f_1_fe7ce43f5dd830f20d422e77d2e57721e57914f2.jpg

VH-JET#1 & Her Sisters - Little Sisters (http://www.707.adastron.com/qantas/hs125.htm)

[ATNotts]

I can see a TAA 727 just on the right of the photo above, not really surprising given the location, but is that a DC4 outside the hangar; or staring more closely at my screen, perhaps a Viscount 700? Even on my phone I can't enlarge the picture enough to be sure.

[treadigraph]

I think it is a DC-4 but hard to be sure.

The 125 accident I was thinking of definitely occured much earlier than G-OBOB's demise, I'll see if I can find out what I am thinking of. Reckon a friend may have his old bizjets on the bookshelves still. I recall G-OBOB at Heathrow as G-BAXL with Dennis Vanguard. G-OBOB, Slender You... not Bob Maxwell then... :}

[DaveReidUK]

Given the date (1971), likely to have been Qantas DC-4 VH-EDA, which was preserved at Sydney for a while before going to the USA and then Canada.

Some nice photos of it here: http://www.aussieairliners.org/dc-4/vh-anf/vhanf.html

[megan]

treaders, our Department of Civil Aviation had a 125, VH-CAO, which made an inadvertent gear up landing at Avalon, Victoria 24th Jan, 1967, maybe what you're thinking of? That and the two Qantas aircraft are the only three Oz 125's I'm aware of.

[Fris B. Fairing]

The photo in post #12 was taken at Sydney on 16 August 1971 after the two HS-125s escorted the first Qantas 747 to the terminal. The aeroplane in the background is indeed a DC-4. In 1971 Qantas still had two DC-4s in service on the Norfolk Island route so it could be either VH-EDA "Pacific Trader" or VH-EDB "Norfolk Trader".
Rgds

[wakefield]

It’s a DC4. I flew on one to Norfolk Island. From fuzzy memory it would have been in 1973.

[treadigraph]

treaders, our Department of Civil Aviation had a 125, VH-CAO, which made an inadvertent gear up landing at Avalon, Victoria 24th Jan, 1967, maybe what you're thinking of? That and the two Qantas aircraft are the only three Oz 125's I'm aware of.

Don't think it was that one as it appears to have been rebuilt - the one I'm thinking off was a write off.

[ATNotts]

Given the date (1971), likely to have been Qantas DC-4 VH-EDA, which was preserved at Sydney for a while before going to the USA and then Canada.

Some nice photos of it here: VH-ANF Douglas DC-4-1009 (http://www.aussieairliners.org/dc-4/vh-anf/vhanf.html)

Really good photos, thanks for posting the link. Glad my recognition is still there or thereabouts.

[megan]

treaders, both ECE and CAO were put out to pasture following removal from service and became derelict. History of the three here.

Australian Hawker Siddeley HS-125 Register (http://www.aussieairliners.org/hs-125/hs125index.htm)

[Fris B. Fairing]

Other Australian HS.125s of this period were:
VH-BBJ
HS.125-3B/RA (msn 25169) delivered to Bell Brothers Air Charter Pty. Ltd., Guildford, WA in January 1970 and sold overseas in June 1972.
VH-TOM
HS.125-400B (msn 25242) delivered to Tom the Cheap (WA) Pty. Ltd., Perth, WA in January 1971 and sold overseas in December 1973.
The Australian Register also included several later versions of the HS.125 under various designations.
Source:
ADASTRON (http://www.707.adastron.com/qantas/hs125.htm)

[Safety Trev]

I was listening to Melbourne ABC Radio this morning around 10 am (7/1/24) and they were discussing the Japan incident and the successful evacuation. A woman phoned in that was on the 1960 Qantas Super constellation Mauritius plane when it crashed. She said the news did not get to Australia, it was kept quiet. She said that pilot made a PA announcement that he was going to abandon the take off due to a technical fault. They over shot the end of the runway and hit a ditch. The wings got caught and broke off and a fire occurred. The pilot led them through the cockpit and told them to jump from his door. she said i will not jump, it is too high. he pushed her out. then her husband jumped out. they landed on soft ground and were not injured.
Cheers

Trevor




Dear all,

I´m looking for some kind of accident report about the take off crash of the QANTAS L-1049 at Mauritius on the 24.08.1960. I would assume that there was some sort of investigation, but I haven´t found any "official" documentation..

I have found some information on Australian websites, for example some articles from Mr. Job on the CAA Website. I have also asked the ATSB, unfortunaly with kind, but negative result. So any help is appreciated.

Best regards,
Stubenfliege