Nouméa – Luganville

On November 23, 1943 at 09:00 AM, Nouméa – Luganville experienced a crash involving Douglas C-47 Skytrain (DC-3), operated by United States Army Air Forces - USAAF, with the event recorded near Nakéty Bay New Caledonia.

The flight was categorized as military and the reported phase was flight at a lake, sea, ocean, river crash site.

25 people were known to be on board, 25 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 6, crew fatalities: 6, passengers on board: 19, passenger fatalities: 19, other fatalities: 0.

The aircraft , call-sign "675-Baker-253", took off from Noumea-La Tontouta Airport, bound for Espiritu Santo. Radio contact was established at 0810LT but the aircraft failed to respond to a scheduled call at 0910LT. Two days later, damaged gear and some personal effects from the plane were found in Nakety Bay. A cold front had passed through the New Caledonia area in the early hours of the morning of the 23rd bringing a cloud layer at 2 to 4 thousand feet and a visibility of 4 to 6 miles, with 3 miles in heavier rain. The route was considered flyable on instruments and several aircraft flew it that day without the pilots reporting any difficulty with the weather conditions. The bodies of the 6 crew-members and 19 passengers (3 RNZAF and 16 USMC from VMTB-232) were never found. Source: http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19431123-0

Aircraft reference details include registration 41-18675, MSN 6081, year of manufacture 1942.