Rathmines – Townsville – Darwin

On May 7, 1950 at 10:30 AM, Rathmines – Townsville – Darwin experienced a crash involving Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina, operated by Royal Australian Air Force - RAAF, with the event recorded near Georgetown Queensland.

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

7 people were known to be on board, 6 fatalities were recorded, 1 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 85.7%.

Crew on board: 7, crew fatalities: 6, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. On the leg from Townsville to Darwin, while cruising 30 km from Georgetown, the flight engineer informed the pilot about a fuel leak on the left engine. The captain decided to divert to Georgetown Airport for an emergency landing but on final, the seaplane was unstable, banking left and right. The pilot increased power on the right engine and attempted a go around when the aircraft banked right, stalled, overturned and crashed in flames in a field located about 5 km from the airport. Five crew members were killed instantly while two others were seriously injured. One of the survivors died from his injuries few hours later. Crew: F/Lt David Northey, pilot, † John Gilbert Humprey Alexander, pilot, † Leo Maurice Sattler, pilot, † Alexander John Brown, navigator, † Frank Slater, flight engineer, Maurice Henry Wood, flight engineer, † William Bedford, wireless operator. †

Aircraft reference details include registration A24-105, MSN 1956, year of manufacture 1944.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately -18.2898°, 143.5477°.