Qantas fatal accidents

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While Qantas has never had a fatal jet airliner accident, the Australian national airline suffered several losses in its early days before the widespread adoption of the jet engine in civilian aviation.^[1] These were mainly biplanes or flying boats servicing routes in Queensland and New Guinea.^[2] The incidents between 1942 and 1944 were during World War II, when Qantas Empire Airways operated on behalf of the military.^[3] While strictly speaking not an accident, the shooting-down of G-AEUH is included for completeness.

Date	Location	Aircraft type	Registration	Description	Aboard	Fatalities	References
24 March 1927	Tambo, Australia	de Havilland DH.9C	G-AUED	Stalled at low altitiude on approach to land.	3	3	[4][5]
4 September 1928	Adelaide Hills, Australia	de Havilland DH.50J	G-AUHI	Following a tour carrying Sir John Salmond, aircraft departed Adelaide piloted by C. W. A. Scott with engineer as passenger; lost control in cloud during attempt to cross the Adelaide Hills and aircraft crashed and caught fire.	2	1	[6]
3 October 1934	Near Winton, Australia	de Havilland DH.50A	VH-UHE	Crashed after in-flight loss of control, possibly stalled at low altitude in dusty low-visibility conditions.	3	3	[7]
15 November 1934	Near Longreach, Australia	de Havilland DH.86	VH-USG	Crashed on its delivery flight from England to Brisbane after in-flight loss of control, probably due to the type's design deficiencies.	4	4	[8][9][10][11][12]
30 January 1942	Timor Sea off Kupang	Short S.23 Empire Flying Boat	G-AEUH	Shot down by Japanese aircraft; ex-Qantas VH-ABD, owned by Imperial Airways and operated by Qantas.	18	13	[3][13][14]
20 February 1942	Brisbane, Australia	de Havilland DH.86	VH-USE	Lost control after take-off in stormy weather, possibly broke-up in flight (tail fin found a mile from the crash site).	9	9	[15][16][17][18]
22 April 1943	Gulf of Papua off Port Moresby, Papua	Short S.23 Empire Flying Boat	VH-ADU	Broke up in heavy seas after emergency landing in open water in poor weather.	31	13	[14][19]
26 November 1943	Port Moresby, Papua	Lockheed C-56B Lodestar	42-68348	Struck hill after take-off; USAAF aircraft operated by Qantas for Allied Directorate of Air Transport.	15	15	[20][21]
11 October 1944	Rose Bay, Sydney, Australia	Short S.23 Empire Flying Boat	VH-ABB	On final approach with one engine shut-down, stalled 3 metres (10 ft) above the water and hull ruptured on impact.	30	1	[14][22][23]
23 March 1946	Indian Ocean	Avro Lancastrian	G-AGLX	Aircraft disappeared between Colombo and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, cause unknown; aircraft owned by BOAC and operated by both airlines on Sydney-London services (BOAC crews operated London-Karachi and Qantas crews Karachi-Sydney).	10	10	[24][25]
16 July 1951	Huon Gulf near Lae, Papua New Guinea	de Havilland Australia DHA-3 Drover	VH-EBQ	Crashed in sea after centre propeller failure.	7	7	[26]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Allen, Eric (1995). Airliners in Australian Service. 1. Weston Creek, ACT: Aerospace Publications Pty. Ltd. ISBN 1875671145. OCLC 38384708. 
• Cuskelly, Ron (1997–2000). "The Lockheed File: Lockheed Aircraft in Australia". http://www.adastron.com/lockheed/lock1.htm. 
• Francillon, Rene J. (1987). Lockheed Aircraft Since 1913. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870218972. OCLC 17156375. 
• Fysh, Sir Wilmot Hudson (1965). Qantas Rising: The Autobiography of the Flying Fysh. Sydney, NSW: Angus and Robertson. LoC Cat. No. 65-25523. OCLC 2223794. 
• Graham, Wynnum B. (2001). "Empire C Class Flying Boats" (PDF). Australian Military Aircraft Serials and Aircraft History. http://www.adf-serials.com/research/empireflyingboats.pdf. 
• Job, Macarthur (1991). Air Crash. 1. Weston Creek, ACT: Aerospace Publications Pty. Ltd. ISBN 0958797897. OCLC 28964777. 
• Job, Macarthur (1992). Air Crash. 2. Weston Creek, ACT: Aerospace Publications Pty. Ltd. ISBN 1875671013. OCLC 221135405. 
• Kebabjian, Richard (1997–2008). "PlaneCrashInfo.com". http://www.planecrashinfo.com/. 
• Livingstone, Bob (1998). Under the Southern Cross: The B-24 Liberator in the South Pacific. Nashville, TN: Turner Publishing Company. ISBN 1563114321. OCLC 44838653. 
• Ranter, Harro; Lujan, Fabian I. (1996–2008). "Aviation Safety Network". Flight Safety Foundation. http://aviation-safety.net/. 

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Qantas fatal accidents

• Qantas Flight 1
• List of accidents and incidents involving airliners by airline

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