Cooktown – Cairns

On January 19, 1937 at 01:00 PM, Cooktown – Cairns experienced a crash involving De Havilland DH.80 Puss Moth, operated by North Queensland Airways, with the event recorded near Cairns Queensland.

The flight was categorized as charter/taxi (non scheduled revenue flight) and the reported phase was flight at a lake, sea, ocean, river crash site.

3 people were known to be on board, 1 fatalities were recorded, 2 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 33.3%.

Crew on board: 1, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 2, passenger fatalities: 1, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. While flying over the Trinity Bay, off Cairns, the single engine aircraft crashed into the sea some 16 km off Cairns. The pilot and a young boy aged 13 were injured while a girl aged 15 was killed. It appears the aircraft was descending to the sea at a normal rate when it his the water surface and crashed.

Aircraft reference details include registration VH-UPQ, MSN 2085, year of manufacture 1930.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately -16.9329°, 145.7611°.