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{{short description|1960 aviation accident}}
The largest loss of life in an Australian aircraft accident, with 29 deaths, occured on [[10 June]] [[1960]] at [[Mackay, Queensland]], [[Australia]]. A two-engined passenger plane, a [[Fokker Friendship]] belonging to [[Trans Australia Airlines]] (TAA), registration VH-TFB, was operating TAA Flight 538 from [[Brisbane]]. Arriving over Mackay at night, in foggy conditions, while on final approach to land it flew into the ocean south-east of Mackay. It was TAA's first fatal accident in the 14 years since the airline was founded.
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{Use Australian English|date=July 2014}}
{{Infobox aircraft occurrence
| occurrence_type = Accident
| name = Trans-Australia Airlines Flight 538
| image = TAAFLIGHTCRASH.jpg
| caption = A Fokker 27 from 1977 that is similar to the aircraft involved with the accident.
| date = {{start date|df=yes|1960|06|10}}
| type = [[Controlled flight into terrain]] for undetermined reasons
| site = [[Mackay, Queensland]], Australia
| aircraft_type = [[Fokker Friendship|Fokker F-27 Friendship 100]]
| tail_number = VH-TFB
| aircraft_name = ''[[Abel Tasman]]''
| operator = [[Trans Australia Airlines]]
| origin = [[Brisbane Airport]]<br/>[[Brisbane]], [[Queensland]]
| stopover0 = [[Maryborough Airport (Queensland)|Maryborough Airport]]<br/>[[Maryborough, Queensland]]
| stopover1 = [[Rockhampton Airport]]<br/>[[Rockhampton]], Queensland
| destination = [[Mackay Airport]]<br/>Mackay, Queensland
| passengers = 25
| crew = 4
| fatalities = 29
| injuries =
| survivors = 0
}}


On 10 June 1960, a [[Fokker Friendship]] passenger aircraft operated by [[Trans Australia Airlines]] (TAA) was on approach at night to land at [[Mackay, Queensland]], Australia when it crashed into the sea. All 29 people on board '''Trans Australia Airlines Flight 538''' were killed.<ref name="ASN">{{Cite web |title=Accident Fokker F-27 Friendship 100 VH-TFB |url=https://aviation-safety.net/asndb/333771 |access-date=16 August 2011 |website=Aviation Safety Network}}</ref>
== The aircraft ==


== Aircraft ==
The aircraft that crashed was TAA's first [[Fokker Friendship]] F-27 aircraft. In fact, TAA was the first airline outside of Europe to order the type. TAA's director of engineering, John L. Watkins [[Order_of_the_British_Empire|OBE]], accepted the aircraft at the Fokker works near Schipol Airport, Amsterdam, on 6 April 1959. The aircraft was christened [[Abel Tasman|''Abel Tasman'']] after the Dutch explorer who was the first European to reach [[New Zealand]], [[Tasmania]], and parts of [[Australia]] in 1642-1644. The aircraft was given registry number VH-TFB. The acceptance ceremony was attended by the Australian ambassador and his wife, Sir Edwin and Lady McCarthy.
The aircraft was TAA's first [[Fokker Friendship]] F-27 aircraft; TAA was the first airline outside of Europe to order the type. TAA's director of engineering, John L. Watkins [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]], accepted the aircraft, registered VH-TFB, at the [[Fokker Aircraft|Fokker works]] near Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, on 6 April 1959. The aircraft was christened ''[[Abel Tasman]]'' after the Dutch explorer who was the first European to reach [[New Zealand]], [[Tasmania]], and parts of mainland Australia in 1642–1644; the acceptance ceremony was attended by the Australian ambassador and his wife, Sir Edwin and Lady McCarthy. The aircraft delivery flight to Australia was captained by Don Winch.


In the 14 years since the creation of TAA in 1946, it had experienced only two fatal accidents – a Douglas DC-3 carrying cargo crashed after take-off from [[Cambridge Aerodrome]] on 8 August 1951, killing both pilots;<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23061699 "T.A.A. Loses First Plane: Two Killed"] ''The Argus'' – 9 August 1951, p.1 (National Library of Australia) Retrieved 7 September 2012</ref> and a [[Vickers Viscount]] crashed on a training flight at [[Mangalore Airport (Victoria)|Mangalore Airport]] on 31 October 1954, killing three pilots.<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23458910 "Viscount Crashes: 3 Dead, 4 Injured"] ''The Argus'' – 1 November 1954, p.1 (National Library of Australia) Retrieved 17 October 2011</ref> By June 1960, TAA had 12 Fokker Friendships in service.
By June [[1960]], TAA had 12 Fokker Friendships in service, and in the 14 years since the airline's creation in [[1946]], it had never had a fatal accident.


== The accident ==
== Accident ==
[[File:As-map.png|thumb|260px|Location of Mackay (east coast, between Townsville and Gladstone) in relation to other major Australian cities.]]


On the late afternoon and evening of Friday, 10 June 1960, VH-TFB was flying TAA Flight 538 from [[Brisbane]] to [[Mackay]], with stops at [[Maryborough]] and [[Rockhampton, Queensland|Rockhampton]]. It left Brisbane on time at 5pm under the command of Captain F. C. Pollard with G. L. Davis as First Officer.
On the late afternoon and evening of Friday, 10 June 1960, VH-TFB was flying TAA Flight 538 from [[Brisbane]] to [[Mackay, Queensland|Mackay]], with stops at [[Maryborough, Queensland|Maryborough]] and [[Rockhampton]]. It left Brisbane on time at 5 pm under the command of Captain F. C. Pollard with G. L. Davis as First Officer.


The flight to Maryborough and on to Rockhampton was normal. The plane arrived at Rockhampton at 7.12pm, where the crew received the weather forecast for Mackay, predicting shallow fog patches. VH-TFB was refuelled to 700 gallons, giving sufficient endurance to continue on to [[Townsville, Queensland|Townsville]] if fog made it impossible to land in Mackay.
The flight to Maryborough and on to Rockhampton was normal. The aircraft arrived at [[Rockhampton Airport]] at 7:12 pm, where the crew received the weather forecast for Mackay, predicting shallow fog patches. VH-TFB was refuelled to 700 gallons, giving sufficient range to continue on to [[Townsville]] if fog made it impossible to land in Mackay.


Adding to the nine passengers already aboard, seven adults and nine schoolboys joined the flight at Rockhampton. All the schoolboys were boarders at Rockhampton Grammar School, returning home to Mackay for the [[Queen's Birthday]] long weekend. One of these, nine-year-old Max Barclay from Carrington Station near [[Nebo, Queensland|Nebo]], was celebrating his ninth birthday, and instead of his parents driving down to pick him up, he was allowed to fly home instead as a special birthday treat.
Adding to the nine passengers already aboard, seven adults and nine schoolboys joined the flight at Rockhampton. All the schoolboys were boarders at [[Rockhampton Grammar School]], returning home to Mackay for the [[Queen's Birthday]] long weekend.{{Citation needed|date=September 2008}}


VH-TFB departed from Rockhampton at 7.52pm and ascended to 13,000 feet. At 8.17pm, Mackay air traffic controller E. W. Miskell reported that fog had rolled in and temporarily closed Mackay airport. A few minutes later, having come to the spot where he would start descending, Captain Pollard told the tower controller he would hold over Mackay at 13,000 feet in case visibility improved. At 8.40pm they reported they were over the airport. They continued to circle.
VH-TFB departed from Rockhampton at 7:52 pm and ascended to {{convert|13000|ft|m|-2}}. At 8:17 pm, Mackay air traffic controller E. W. Miskell reported that fog had rolled in and temporarily closed [[Mackay Airport]]. A few minutes later, having come to the spot where he would start descending, Captain Pollard told the tower controller he would hold over Mackay at {{convert|13000|ft|m|-2}} in case visibility improved. At 8:40 pm they reported they were over the airport. It was a bright moonlit night with a completely calm sea and two approaches were aborted due to a low layer of cloud on the coastline obscuring the sight of the strip on final approach.<ref name=ASN/>


By 10pm, the fog was thinning. Air traffic controller Miskell reported this to VH-TFB, and Captain Pollard said they would begin an approach to the airport. Miskell reported the airport conditions. Pollard acknowledged the transmission.
By 10 pm, the fog was thinning. Air traffic controller Miskell reported this to VH-TFB, and Captain Pollard said they would begin an approach to the airport. Miskell reported the airport conditions. Pollard acknowledged the transmission.


Miskell then telephoned the airport fire service for the latest ground temperature. It was 13 degrees [[Celsius]]. Miskell immediately reported this to VH-TFB.
Miskell then telephoned the airport fire service for the latest ground temperature. It was 55.4 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius.) Miskell immediately reported this to VH-TFB. This time, there was no acknowledgement. Miskell transmitted again, noting the time was 10:05pm, and again there was no reply. At 10:10 pm, Miskell started the procedure for launching a search and rescue operation.


⚫
== Immediate aftermath ==
This time, there was no acknowledgement.


⚫
Five hours after the accident, at about 3 am on the morning of Saturday, 11 June 1960, a searchlight-equipped motor launch found items of wreckage, including damaged passenger seats, clothing and cabin furnishings, floating on the ocean between Round Top Island and Flat Top Island, five nautical miles due east of Mackay Airport.
Miskell transmitted again, noting the time was 10.05pm, and again there was no reply. At 10.10pm, Miskell started the procedure for launching a search and rescue operation.


⚫
A navy survey ship, [[HMAS Warrego (U73)|HMAS ''Warrego'']], was sent to search for the sunken wreckage, and arrived on Sunday, 12 June 1960. At 4:20 pm that afternoon, ''Warrego'' discovered the major sections of VH-TFB in {{convert|40|ft|m}} of water, a further {{convert|4|nmi|km}} south-west of Round Top Island (or about {{convert|3|nmi|km|}} south-east of Mackay Airport). Salvaging the wreck took another two weeks.
⚫
== The immediate aftermath ==


== Investigation ==
⚫
Five hours after the accident, at about 3am, a searchlight-equipped motor launch had found items of wreckage (damaged passenger seats, clothing, cabin furnishings) floating on the ocean between Round Top Island and Flat Top Island, five nautical miles due east of Mackay Airport.


⚫
A Board of Accident Inquiry was appointed on 29 July 1960; after allowing the investigators to sift the wreckage, it finally opened on 4 October 1960. The board sat for four days in [[Brisbane]] and two more in [[Mackay, Queensland|Mackay]], before concluding on 10 November 1960. The Board was chaired by [[John Spicer (Australian politician)|Mr Justice Spicer]] of the Commonwealth Industrial Court.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=-bBv-mvcq9QC&dq=taa+fokker+friendship+disaster&pg=PT78 The TAA Fokker Friendship disaster.] Retrieved 9 October 2011</ref>
⚫
A navy survey ship, [[HMAS Warrego]], was sent to search for the sunken wreckage, and arrived on Sunday 12 June 1960. At 4.20pm on that afternoon, HMAS Warrego discovered the major sections of VH-TFB in 40 feet of water, a further four nautical miles south-west of Round Top Island (or about three nautical miles south-east of Mackay Airport). Salvaging the wreck took another two weeks.


The inquiry did not determine a particular cause. The aircraft had flown into the ocean for no apparent reason, and so the board focussed on the [[altimeter]]. One possibility was that the [[Pitot-static system#Static pressure|static pressure system]] or altimeter was malfunctioning and not allowing display of the correct altitude.<ref name=ASN/>
== The cause of the accident ==


Another possibility was that the reading of the three-pointer [[altimeter]] was misinterpreted. This type of altimeter has individual pointers for thousands, hundreds and tens of feet, and can be difficult to interpret.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/users/blayw/flyingl.html|title=Department of Informatics : University of Sussex|author=Department of Informatics|accessdate=26 March 2016|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927095450/http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/users/blayw/flyingl.html|archivedate=27 September 2011}}</ref> Errors of 1,000 or 10,000 feet were common, as had been outlined by W. F. Grether in a 1949 report for the ''Journal of Applied Psychology''.<ref>[http://www.bainbrdg.demon.co.uk/Papers/MWLaTH.html bainbrdg.demon.co.uk]</ref> As a consequence, three-pointer altimeters were later removed from service. If human error were the case, the accident may have simply been the result of a [[controlled flight into terrain]]. However, many commentators thought this unlikely, given the long experience of Captain Pollard.{{Citation needed|date=February 2008}}
⚫
A Board of Accident Inquiry was appointed on 29 July 1960, and after allowing the investigators to sift the wreckage, finally opened on 4 October 1960. It sat for four days in [[Brisbane]] and two more in [[Mackay]], before concluding on 10 November 1960.


Another possibility was posited by TAA's director of engineering, John L. Watkins [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]], who was intrigued by a mysterious brown glass medicine bottle discovered in the wreckage of the cockpit. Watkins theorised that one of the schoolchildren on the flight may have been an aviation enthusiast, and had been shown into the cockpit whilst handling a bottle of model aircraft fuel. At some point the bottle's contents may have spilled in the cockpit, the fumes distracting the pilots enough for them to make a mistake and crash.
The inquiry did not conclude on any particular cause. The aircraft had flown into the ocean for no apparent reason, so they focussed on the [[altimeter]].


Frank McMullen, TAA's Technical Services Engineering Superintendent and F27 Project Engineer, was a member of the team that joined with [[Department of Civil Aviation]] officials studying the crash. He formed the view that at the third attempt to land, the crew adopted a low flight path hoping to keep the airstrip in sight below the cloud layer, but were deceived by the difficulty in assessing height over a glassy sea and put the left wing tip into the water turning onto the runway approach.
One possibility was that the [[pitot tube]] which measures air pressure (to find altitude) may have been contaminated with water, which froze during the flight.


One of the recommendations made by the Board of Accident Inquiry was that passenger-carrying aircraft of the size of the F-27 and larger should be equipped with [[flight data recorder]]s.<ref name=ASN/>
Another possibility was that the 3-pointer [[altimeter]] was merely misinterpreted. That is, at 3,900 feet the 100-feet pointer indicates 9 on the dial, but the shorter 1000-feet pointer appears to indicate 4. It must, however, be read as 3. Such a mistake is surprisingly common, which is why 3-pointer altimeters were later dropped. If this were the case, the crew would have simply flown into the ocean while thinking they were another thousand feet higher. However, many commentators thought this unlikely given the long experience of Captain Pollard.


== Another Possibility ==
== Long-term aftermath ==


Australia became the first country to mandate the carriage of cockpit voice recorders on civil transport aircraft, a trend which was later followed by other countries. Today, all large civil transport aircraft are required to carry a CVR.<ref>{{cite web|title=Black box flight recorder|url=http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/innovation/black-box-flight-recorder|website=DST Group|date=29 November 2012 |publisher=Department of Defence|accessdate=7 November 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Perry|first1=Graham|title=Flying people : bringing you safe flying, every day|date=2004|publisher=Kea|location=Erskine|isbn=0951895869|page=106}}</ref>
Yet another possibility revolves around an interesting piece of wreckage. TAA's director of engineering, John L. Watkins [[Order_of_the_British_Empire|OBE]], was intrigued by a mysterious brown glass medicine bottle discovered in the wreckage of the cockpit. Wondering how the bottle could have found its way into the cockpit, he developed a hypothesis which, though it can never be proved, is still quite interesting.


Trans Australia Airlines Flight 538 and the [[1950 Australian National Airways Douglas DC-4 crash]], with 29 fatalities each, remain the two deadliest aviation accidents in Australian peacetime history.<ref name="10worst">{{Cite web |title=10 Worst Aircraft Crashes in Australia |url=https://www.ozatwar.com/ozcrashes/10worst.htm |access-date=16 August 2011 |website=www.ozatwar.com}}</ref> The greatest loss of life in an air accident in Australia was the [[Bakers Creek air crash]] in 1943 which caused 40 fatalities in a [[United States Army Air Forces]] [[Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress]].
Remember the nine schoolboys who joined the flight in Rockhampton? Back in 1960 flying was still a thrill for boys of about 10 years of age, and it was customary to allow young passengers to come up to the cockpit to have a look. With all the circling while waiting for the fog to clear, no doubt the pilots would welcome some company who were interested in flying.


== See also ==
It's possible that one of the schoolboys, one who was the most interested in flying, was still in the cockpit at 10pm when air traffic controller Miskell reported that the fog was lifting. Being a flying enthusiast, it is plausible that he might have a bottle of model aircraft fuel in a brown medicine bottle (a long shot, to be sure, but that was Watkins' theory). The pilots, having enjoyed passing the time with a keen young enthusiast, would have wanted to land quickly, so there may have been a bit of hurrying and rushing to get the young lad back to his seat. In the hurry, he may have dropped his bottle, and spilled the cockpit with pungent fumes that reek of a fire risk.
*[[List of disasters in Australia by death toll]]


== References ==
Could this mishap have distracted the crew enough for them to misread the 3-pointer altimeter five minutes later, and fly the plane into the sea? We will never know.
{{reflist}}


== Long-Term Aftermath ==
== External links ==
*[http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19600610-1 Aviation Safety Network]
*[http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2004/06/10/1128654.htm Fokker Crash Anniversary, June 2004]


{{Aviation accidents and incidents in 1960}}
At 29 deaths, this is still Australia's largest loss of life in an air disaster.
{{Aviation accidents and incidents in Australia}}
In-flight voice recorders were still in development in 1960, and the Board of Inquiry recommended that these be installed in Australian commercial airliners when they were available.
{{coord missing|Queensland}}


[[Category:Accidents and incidents on commercial airliners]]
[[Category:Accidents and incidents involving the Fokker F27]]
[[Category:1960]]
[[Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in 1960]]
[[Category:Airliner accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain]]
⚫
[[Category:History of Australia]]
[[Category:Trans Australia Airlines accidents and incidents]]
[[Category:Mackay, Queensland]]
[[Category:Disasters in Queensland]]
[[Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in Queensland]]
[[Category:1960s in Queensland]]
[[Category:June 1960 events in Australia]]
⚫
[[Category:1960 disasters in Australia]]

Latest revision as of 11:14, 24 November 2024

Trans-Australia Airlines Flight 538
A Fokker 27 from 1977 that is similar to the aircraft involved with the accident.
Accident
Date10 June 1960 (1960-06-10)
SummaryControlled flight into terrain for undetermined reasons
SiteMackay, Queensland, Australia
Aircraft
Aircraft typeFokker F-27 Friendship 100
Aircraft nameAbel Tasman
OperatorTrans Australia Airlines
RegistrationVH-TFB
Flight originBrisbane Airport
Brisbane, Queensland
1st stopoverMaryborough Airport
Maryborough, Queensland
2nd stopoverRockhampton Airport
Rockhampton, Queensland
DestinationMackay Airport
Mackay, Queensland
Passengers25
Crew4
Fatalities29
Survivors0

On 10 June 1960, a Fokker Friendship passenger aircraft operated by Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) was on approach at night to land at Mackay, Queensland, Australia when it crashed into the sea. All 29 people on board Trans Australia Airlines Flight 538 were killed.[1]

Aircraft

[edit]

The aircraft was TAA's first Fokker Friendship F-27 aircraft; TAA was the first airline outside of Europe to order the type. TAA's director of engineering, John L. Watkins OBE, accepted the aircraft, registered VH-TFB, at the Fokker works near Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, on 6 April 1959. The aircraft was christened Abel Tasman after the Dutch explorer who was the first European to reach New Zealand, Tasmania, and parts of mainland Australia in 1642–1644; the acceptance ceremony was attended by the Australian ambassador and his wife, Sir Edwin and Lady McCarthy. The aircraft delivery flight to Australia was captained by Don Winch.

In the 14 years since the creation of TAA in 1946, it had experienced only two fatal accidents – a Douglas DC-3 carrying cargo crashed after take-off from Cambridge Aerodrome on 8 August 1951, killing both pilots;[2] and a Vickers Viscount crashed on a training flight at Mangalore Airport on 31 October 1954, killing three pilots.[3] By June 1960, TAA had 12 Fokker Friendships in service.

Accident

[edit]
Location of Mackay (east coast, between Townsville and Gladstone) in relation to other major Australian cities.

On the late afternoon and evening of Friday, 10 June 1960, VH-TFB was flying TAA Flight 538 from Brisbane to Mackay, with stops at Maryborough and Rockhampton. It left Brisbane on time at 5 pm under the command of Captain F. C. Pollard with G. L. Davis as First Officer.

The flight to Maryborough and on to Rockhampton was normal. The aircraft arrived at Rockhampton Airport at 7:12 pm, where the crew received the weather forecast for Mackay, predicting shallow fog patches. VH-TFB was refuelled to 700 gallons, giving sufficient range to continue on to Townsville if fog made it impossible to land in Mackay.

Adding to the nine passengers already aboard, seven adults and nine schoolboys joined the flight at Rockhampton. All the schoolboys were boarders at Rockhampton Grammar School, returning home to Mackay for the Queen's Birthday long weekend.[citation needed]

VH-TFB departed from Rockhampton at 7:52 pm and ascended to 13,000 feet (4,000 m). At 8:17 pm, Mackay air traffic controller E. W. Miskell reported that fog had rolled in and temporarily closed Mackay Airport. A few minutes later, having come to the spot where he would start descending, Captain Pollard told the tower controller he would hold over Mackay at 13,000 feet (4,000 m) in case visibility improved. At 8:40 pm they reported they were over the airport. It was a bright moonlit night with a completely calm sea and two approaches were aborted due to a low layer of cloud on the coastline obscuring the sight of the strip on final approach.[1]

By 10 pm, the fog was thinning. Air traffic controller Miskell reported this to VH-TFB, and Captain Pollard said they would begin an approach to the airport. Miskell reported the airport conditions. Pollard acknowledged the transmission.

Miskell then telephoned the airport fire service for the latest ground temperature. It was 55.4 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius.) Miskell immediately reported this to VH-TFB. This time, there was no acknowledgement. Miskell transmitted again, noting the time was 10:05pm, and again there was no reply. At 10:10 pm, Miskell started the procedure for launching a search and rescue operation.

Immediate aftermath

[edit]

Five hours after the accident, at about 3 am on the morning of Saturday, 11 June 1960, a searchlight-equipped motor launch found items of wreckage, including damaged passenger seats, clothing and cabin furnishings, floating on the ocean between Round Top Island and Flat Top Island, five nautical miles due east of Mackay Airport.

A navy survey ship, HMAS Warrego, was sent to search for the sunken wreckage, and arrived on Sunday, 12 June 1960. At 4:20 pm that afternoon, Warrego discovered the major sections of VH-TFB in 40 feet (12 m) of water, a further 4 nautical miles (7.4 km) south-west of Round Top Island (or about 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) south-east of Mackay Airport). Salvaging the wreck took another two weeks.

Investigation

[edit]

A Board of Accident Inquiry was appointed on 29 July 1960; after allowing the investigators to sift the wreckage, it finally opened on 4 October 1960. The board sat for four days in Brisbane and two more in Mackay, before concluding on 10 November 1960. The Board was chaired by Mr Justice Spicer of the Commonwealth Industrial Court.[4]

The inquiry did not determine a particular cause. The aircraft had flown into the ocean for no apparent reason, and so the board focussed on the altimeter. One possibility was that the static pressure system or altimeter was malfunctioning and not allowing display of the correct altitude.[1]

Another possibility was that the reading of the three-pointer altimeter was misinterpreted. This type of altimeter has individual pointers for thousands, hundreds and tens of feet, and can be difficult to interpret.[5] Errors of 1,000 or 10,000 feet were common, as had been outlined by W. F. Grether in a 1949 report for the Journal of Applied Psychology.[6] As a consequence, three-pointer altimeters were later removed from service. If human error were the case, the accident may have simply been the result of a controlled flight into terrain. However, many commentators thought this unlikely, given the long experience of Captain Pollard.[citation needed]

Another possibility was posited by TAA's director of engineering, John L. Watkins OBE, who was intrigued by a mysterious brown glass medicine bottle discovered in the wreckage of the cockpit. Watkins theorised that one of the schoolchildren on the flight may have been an aviation enthusiast, and had been shown into the cockpit whilst handling a bottle of model aircraft fuel. At some point the bottle's contents may have spilled in the cockpit, the fumes distracting the pilots enough for them to make a mistake and crash.

Frank McMullen, TAA's Technical Services Engineering Superintendent and F27 Project Engineer, was a member of the team that joined with Department of Civil Aviation officials studying the crash. He formed the view that at the third attempt to land, the crew adopted a low flight path hoping to keep the airstrip in sight below the cloud layer, but were deceived by the difficulty in assessing height over a glassy sea and put the left wing tip into the water turning onto the runway approach.

One of the recommendations made by the Board of Accident Inquiry was that passenger-carrying aircraft of the size of the F-27 and larger should be equipped with flight data recorders.[1]

Long-term aftermath

[edit]

Australia became the first country to mandate the carriage of cockpit voice recorders on civil transport aircraft, a trend which was later followed by other countries. Today, all large civil transport aircraft are required to carry a CVR.[7][8]

Trans Australia Airlines Flight 538 and the 1950 Australian National Airways Douglas DC-4 crash, with 29 fatalities each, remain the two deadliest aviation accidents in Australian peacetime history.[9] The greatest loss of life in an air accident in Australia was the Bakers Creek air crash in 1943 which caused 40 fatalities in a United States Army Air Forces Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d "Accident Fokker F-27 Friendship 100 VH-TFB". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
  2. ^ "T.A.A. Loses First Plane: Two Killed" The Argus – 9 August 1951, p.1 (National Library of Australia) Retrieved 7 September 2012
  3. ^ "Viscount Crashes: 3 Dead, 4 Injured" The Argus – 1 November 1954, p.1 (National Library of Australia) Retrieved 17 October 2011
  4. ^ The TAA Fokker Friendship disaster. Retrieved 9 October 2011
  5. ^ Department of Informatics. "Department of Informatics : University of Sussex". Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
  6. ^ bainbrdg.demon.co.uk
  7. ^ "Black box flight recorder". DST Group. Department of Defence. 29 November 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
  8. ^ Perry, Graham (2004). Flying people : bringing you safe flying, every day. Erskine: Kea. p. 106. ISBN 0951895869.
  9. ^ "10 Worst Aircraft Crashes in Australia". www.ozatwar.com. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
[edit]

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