Tennant Creek - Tennant Creek

On September 24, 1966 at 09:15 AM, Tennant Creek - Tennant Creek experienced a crash involving Lockheed L-414 Hudson, operated by Adastra Airways - Adastra Aerial Surveys, with the event recorded near Tennant Creek Northern Territory.

The flight was categorized as topographic and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

6 people were known to be on board, 6 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 1, crew fatalities: 1, passengers on board: 5, passenger fatalities: 5, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. The aircraft had been carrying out magnetometer survey flights from the airport for several weeks. It departed at 06:30 hours local time, reaching the survey area an hour later. At 07:50 the Doppler equipment became unserviceable and a little later light rain was encountered. The survey work was abandoned and the flight returned to Tennant Creek. At 09:14 the crew radioed that they were in the circuit area. Wind was reported to be from 070° at 14 knots. The acknowledgement of this information was the last contact with the flight. A minute later, the twin engine aircraft crashed in a prairie located 2 miles west of the runway 07 threshold.The aircraft was totally destroyed and all six on board were killed, among them a child aged 11. An examination of wreckage showed that one of the duplicated aileron control chains in the pilot's control column was broken in the region of the control wheel sprocket. A link pin had failed and this pin might have subsequently jammed the assembly as the control wheel was being rotated. Control could not be taken over by the copilot, as there was no copilot on the flight. The right hand cockpit seat and rudder pedals were removed so a crew member was able to gain access to the nose area of the aircraft for the survey work.

Aircraft reference details include registration VH-AGE, MSN 414-6039, year of manufacture 1941.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately -19.6476°, 134.1898°.