Canberra plane crash in 1940
| Canberra plane crash in 1940 | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Lockheed Hudson museum aircraft |
|
| Accident summary | |
| place | Canberra , Australian Capital Territory |
| date | August 13, 1940 |
| Fatalities | 10 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Injured | - |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Lockheed Hudson |
| operator | Royal Australian Air Force |
| Mark | A16-97 |
| Departure airport | Melbourne |
| Destination airport | Canberra |
| Passengers | 6th |
| crew | 4th |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
Coordinates: 35 ° 19 ′ 6 ″ S , 149 ° 13 ′ 45 ″ E The plane crash in Canberra ( English Canberra air disaster ) occurred on the morning of August 13, 1940 in the Australian capital Canberra . When a Lockheed Hudson of the Royal Australian Air Force crashed while approaching Canberra Airport , all ten people on board were killed. Among the six passengers were three members of the then Australian Cabinet of Prime Minister Robert Menzies and the incumbent Chief of Staff, General Brudenell White .
the accident
The Hudson II was on a flight from Melbourne to Canberra, where Chief of Staff White and the three cabinet members Geoffrey Street ( Minister for the Army and Minister for Repatriation ), James Fairbairn (Minister for Air) and Henry Gullett ( Vice-President of the Executive Council and Minister in charge of Scientific and Industrial Research ) should attend a cabinet meeting. The other passengers were Lieutenant Colonel Francis Thornthwaite, a staff officer White and Fairbairn's private secretary, Richard Edwin Elford. Two other cabinet members, Arthur Fadden (Minister without Portfolio and Chair of the Country Party ) and George McLeay (Minister for Trade and Customs) , had been invited to fly on the same plane but had canceled and had ultimately traveled on the train.
- Prominent victims of the crash
Geoffrey Street
Henry Gullett
Brudenell White
.jpg)
The aircraft with the registration number A16-97 belonged to No. 2 Squadron RAAF and was designed by Flight Lieutenant controlled Robert Hitchcock, who already during World War I pilot in the Royal Flying Corps had been. The machine was only put into service with the RAAF in June 1940.
According to the in Perth appearing Daily News , the aircraft turned first holding pattern over the airfield before it took up altitude and disappeared to the south behind a small, tree-covered hills. It was followed by an explosion in a fireball, then a cloud of smoke rose. The Canberra fire department and ambulances from Canberra and neighboring Queanbeyan immediately rushed to the scene of the accident. After fighting the fire, however, only the burned remains of the four crew members and six passengers could have been recovered. The wings and landing gear were torn off in the accident.
Investigations
Three independent investigations were conducted in the case, first the usual investigation by a coroner , then an internal Service Court of Inquiry , which is also common, and finally a semi-public investigation by an Air Court of Inquiry . By the judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria , Sir Charles Lowe led Special Commission noted in its given on 9 October 1940, the press release notes that the most likely cause of the accident, a stall (stall) was the one Flughöhen- and Loss of control and eventually impact with the ground. There were no irregularities in the pilot or the aircraft. There is also no evidence that someone else on board has taken the helm. Furthermore, sabotage or hostile acts (Australia had been on the side of Great Britain in the war against Germany and Italy from 1939 and June 1940) were ruled out. The question of why the aircraft stalled was not answered in the report, but similar cases had previously occurred with aircraft of this type.
Reactions
Prime Minister Menzies was visibly shocked by the accident. When he stepped outside the House of Representatives the next day , he spoke of “ a dreadful calamity ”. The ministers who were killed were close to him both politically and personally. This was demonstrably true, at least for Street and Gullett. At a memorial service for the victims of the crash in 1960, i. H. 20 years later, the participating Menzies was described as visibly emotional.
Eight of the victims were buried after a memorial service in Melbourne's Anglican Cathedral of St Paul’s on August 15th with great sympathy from the population and with numerous honorary markings. Two of the crew members, Charles Crosdale and John Palmer, were excluded from this arrangement as Catholics.
consequences
Menzie's Australian government had to be reshaped following the unexpected death of three ministers. The already unstable coalition of Menzies' United Australia Party (UAP) and the Country Party (CP) emerged weakened from the incident. The new Secretary of the Army was Senator Philip McBride , the new Air Force Minister Arthur Fadden and the new Vice President of the Executive Council Herbert Collett . Lieutenant General Vernon Sturdee took the post of Chief of Staff as the successor of White.
Menzies' UAP / CP government lost seven seats to the opposition Laboratory and its spin-off Lang Labor as well as one seat to an independent candidate in the parliamentary elections that were due to be held until the end of the year . The result was a “ hung parliament ”, which means that none of the major parties had an absolute majority in parliament. At the end of October 1940, Menzies presented his new minority government, which depended on the support of two independents. At the end of August 1941, after returning from an extended stay in Great Britain, he was finally forced to resign. Fadden, who had replaced him during his absence, temporarily succeeded him. In the fall of 1941, the UAP / CP coalition finally overturned, partly due to the vote of the newly elected independent Arthur Coles in the 1940 elections , and a laboratory government under John Curtin led Australia through the following war years until 1945.
Menzies returned to the post of prime minister in 1949 and held it until 1966.
Commemoration
In 1953, the RAAF Canberra base was renamed Fairbairn Airbase in memory of the victims of the crash . In 1960 a memorial stone was inaugurated at the site of the crash. On the 63rd anniversary in 2003, a memorial plaque and a memorial in the form of a modeled wing were unveiled at the same location.
Memorial stone from 1960
Inscription on the memorial stone from 1960
Memorial from 2003
Memorial plaque from 2003
See also
literature
- Cameron Hazlehurst: Ten Journeys to Cameron's Farm. To Australian Tragedy. Australian National University Press, 2013 ( download link [PDF and HTML]).
- Andrew Tink: Air Disaster Canberra. The Plane Crash That Destroyed a Government. New South Books, 2013, ISBN 978-1-74223-357-4 .
Web links
- Canberra air disaster, 1940 - Fact sheet 142 on naa.gov.au
- Shadow of Calamity - Transcript of a2007broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hazlehurst: Ten Journeys to Cameron's Farm , pp. 619 f.
- ↑ Lockheed Hudson Mark II Serial Number A16-97 on pacificwrecks.com , accessed December 26, 2016.
- ↑ 3 Ministers, 7 Others Die in Crash , The Daily News, August 13, 1940, p. 1, at trove.nla.gov.au , accessed December 26, 2016.
- ↑ See articles in Canberra Times , p. 2, and Sydney Morning Herald , p. 7, both October 10, 1940, at trove.nla.gov.au , accessed December 26, 2016.
- ↑ Canberra Crash - Funeral of Victims , in: The Adelaide Chronicle, August 22, 1940, p. 33 on trove.nla.gov.au , accessed December 26, 2016.
- ^ Hazlehurst: Ten Journeys to Cameron's Farm , pp. 450 f.
- ^ Brian Carroll: Australia's Prime Ministers: From Barton to Howard. Rosenberg Publishing, 2004, p. 149.
- ^ Brian Carroll: Australia's Prime Ministers: From Barton to Howard. Rosenberg Publishing, 2004, p. 151.
- ^ Brian Carroll: Australia's Prime Ministers: From Barton to Howard. Rosenberg Publishing, 2004, p. 154 f.
- ^ Air Disaster Memorial at monumentaustralia.org.au