First published in The Age on October 26, 1938
AUSTRALIA’S WORST AVIATION TRAGEDY
LINER CRASHES IN DANDENONGS
EIGHTEEN DEAD; NO SURVIVORS
Mr Hawker, M.P., a Victim
Part of the aeroplane still burns after the crash.
In the most appalling disaster in the history of civil aviation in Australia, eighteen persons were killed at Mt Dandenong at 1.45 p.m. yesterday, when the Australian National Airways Douglas DC2 monoplane Kyeema crashed in the worst fog known at the Dandenongs for years. There were no survivors, ten of the eighteen passengers being incinerated. The plane left Adelaide yesterday morning, and was 25 miles off its course when the disaster occurred.
SCENE ON A MOUNTAIN SIDE
Bodies and Debris Over Wide Area
The spot where the plane crashed was on a slope a few hundred yards from Ridge-road, and about 200 yards below the observatory, which is situated on the top of Mount Dandenong. The slope is steep and rocky, and is thickly covered with timber and dense undergrowth.
The plane, approaching the mountaintop, at an elevation of approximately 2000 feet, first struck the tops of the trees about 200 feet below the summit. Apparently flying on a level keel, the large plane ploughed through the trees for a distance of 50 feet, shearing through tree trunks up to eighteen inches in diameter, as though they were matchsticks.
As the plane sped towards the slope the starboard wing struck a large tree and slewed the fuselage at an angle of 45 degrees across the mountainside. The force of this impact snapped off the tall unit, which wrapped itself around two trees. Both wings were torn from the fuselage, and, flying through the trees, were smashed into countless small jagged fragments of metal.
The Age coverage published on October 26, 1938.Credit:The Age Archives
The engines, thrown from the nacelles in the wings, bounced up the rocky mountainside, one coming to rest twelve paces to the left of the main wreckage, and the other, smashed to fragments, littering the slope for a distance of fifty feet. The heavy metal propellers were twisted like springs and on most of the blades the tips had been smashed off and hurled hundreds of feet into the undergrowth.
Magnetos, batteries, instruments and other small parts of the plane were scattered up to 200 yards on the slope above the wreckage, while a heavy oil tank, still containing a quantity of oil, was found more than 100 feet beyond the fuselage.
The main body of the plane, still burning three hours after the crash, was only a tangled heap of twisted metal, in which the charred remains of three bodies could be seen lying in the ashes. Trees surround the wreckage were also burning, or else charred by the intense heat.
Log Books Found
Searching among the wreckage, members of the Air Accidents Investigation committee could only find instruments twisted and battered beyond recognition. A valuable find was the radio and engine log books, which had been hurled from the cabin by the impact. Although charred by the flames, the books were still intact, and entries were decipherable, the last in the radio log being: “Osc. becoming faint.”
The log books and several parts of the plane were retained by the committee, and a police guard was placed over the wreckage, pending further investigation.
Evidence as to the time of the crash was furnished by a gold watch, apparently belonging to one of the passengers, which was found on the mountainside. Although severely battered, it was discovered that the hands were pointing to 1.43.
Bodies Unrecognisable
The first persons to reach the blazing plane found a most appalling sight. As they raced down the slope they found three bodies, shockingly mutilated, which had been thrown fifty feet up the mountainside. Other bodies were lying near the plane, including that of the air hostess, who had been thrown with shocking force against a large tree stump. Within the body of the plane, which even then was only a heap of twisted wreckage, could be glimpsed seven other bodies,. It was apparent that all persons in the plane had been killed instantly.
Attempting to recover one of the bodies from the flames, Senior Constable Fowles, of the wireless patrol, grasped a red-hot piece of metal and suffered severe burns to the hand, which necessitated treatment by ambulance men.
SIGHTED AT MONTROSE
“Looked Like Big Shark”
Many residents of Montrose, at the foot of Mount Dandenong, on the Croydon Road, heard the machine flying overhead just a few moments before the fatal crash. Eyewitnesses, who saw the liner momentarily emerge from a hole in the fog before the collision, stated that it was flying low and tilted before hitting the mount.
It is possible that the pilot saw his danger just before the crash. As the air liner swung from Mt Evelyn way towards Mt Dandenong, Mr Hector J Neven, an orchardist who his lived at Montrose for more than 20 years, heard the roar of the engines.
“They came out of what I should say was the worst fog seen here for close on 20 years,” he said, “and I thought that they were going straight into the mountain then. The visibility up top was particularly bad, and to my mind the pilot just spied the mount a minute before the plane hit it. He banked and titled right over, and I then said to my wife: ‘If he does not get up a bit higher he is going to crash.’ The fog could not have been worse at that stage. The plane vanished for a few seconds and the next moment I heard the crash. I told them to ring through for doctors and I started with my horse up the rough mountain track, but in the end visibility was so bad that I could not see 3 yards in front of me, and I had to lead the horse. The scene when I did get there was awful.”
About 1.40 p.m. Mr A. Merkle, who was in his front garden, looked up and saw the outline of a big aeroplane silhouetted in the heavy fog. “Suddenly it emerged from a break in the mist like a big shark moving through the water,” Mr Merkle said. “The machine was then only about 500 feet up, and was travelling from the north-west. It tilted with its left wing down, and was going forward at a tremendous speed with both engines going. It was soon lost to me in the mist again and the next moment I head a terrific noise. It was not the sound of an explosion but that of a heavy collision. I ran into the scrub knowing that the machine had hit the mountainside, but it was a long way from me.”
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