Lord Howe Island - Lord Howe Island

On September 28, 1948 at 07:30 PM, Lord Howe Island - Lord Howe Island experienced a crash involving Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina, operated by Royal Australian Air Force - RAAF, with the event recorded near Lord Howe Island New South Wales.

The flight was categorized as training and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a mountains crash site.

9 people were known to be on board, 7 fatalities were recorded, 2 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 77.8%.

Crew on board: 9, crew fatalities: 7, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. Rathmines-based No 11 Squadron suffered the loss of a Catalina amphibian and seven crewmen in a night crash on Lord Howe Island on this day. The aircraft had completed the outward leg of a navigation exercise to the island and altered course for home when a serious fuel leak began filling the compartment with petrol vapor 20 minutes into the return leg. The captain decided to turn back to Lord Howe and attempt a landing on the island’s sheltered lagoon. After crossing the island west to east, the aircraft turned back before clipping the ridge line below Malabar Hill at about 1930LT. The Catalina careered down the slope before exploding in flames. Local residents who rushed to the scene extracted two seriously injured crew from the wreck. The death toll was the highest suffered by the RAAF in a peacetime accident up until that time. Crew (11th Squadron): F/Lt Malcolm D. Smith, † F/Lt James McCoy, † F/Lt William D. Keller, † F/Lt Alex McKenzie, † Sydney L. Piercey, pilot, † W/O Sydney H. Bacon, † W/O Donald E. Salis, † F/LT Bert R. Bradley, W/O John D. Lea. Source: http://airpower.airforce.gov.au/HistoryRecord/HistoryRecordDetail.aspx?rid=534

Aircraft reference details include registration A24-381, MSN 61163.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately -31.5245°, 159.0616°.