Date:	Monday 26 November 1951
Time:	c. 20:40 LT
Type:	de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide
Owner/operator:	Queensland Ambulance Transport Brigade
Registration:	VH-CFA
MSN:	6814
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 4
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	off Double Island Point, 15 miles North of Cairns, Queensland -   Australia
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Ambulance
Departure airport:	Vanrook Station, Queensland (YVRS)
Destination airport:	Cairns Airport Cairns, Queensland (CNS/YBCS)
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Forced landing in sea 15 miles north of Cairns Queensland. The Rapide was returning to Cairns from an ambulance flight to Vanrook Station, bringing a seriously injured stockman to Cairns Base Hospital. Pilot Captain Neville Hicks. Ambulance Officer Keith Howard and passenger Larry Hansen who was friend of the injured man. The aircraft had no radio navigation aids and Hicks was unable to locate Cairns due to thick smoke from the annual sugar cane burn-off by farmers.

When fuel was low, Hicks ditched in the sea. They were unable to drag the unconscious patient from the aircraft before the Rapide immediately sank. The 3 survivors swam to shore, and reached a beach after 6 hours in the water.

Crew:
Captain Neville Hicks, pilot.
Passengers:
Keith Howard, ambulance officer,
Larry Hansen, friend of the injured man

As reported in a contemporary newspaper ("Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld.) Wednesday 28 Nov 1951 Page 1):

CAIRNS AMBULANCE PLANE PLUNGES INTO SEA
Patient Drowned: Survivors' Long Swim in Shark-Infested Waters
CAIRNS, November 27.
One man was drowned and three others had extraordinary escapes when the Cairns flying ambulance plane plunged into the sea two miles off shore and about 25 miles north of Cairns on Monday night.

The dead man was John Albert O'Loughlin, 30, single, a stockman from Vanrook station, in the Gulf country. The three survivors are the pilot of the plane, Captain Neville Hicks, 31, married, of Pyne Street, Edge Hill, Cairns, Ambulance bearer Keith Howarth 27, married, with a baby daughter, of Lily Street, Cairns, and Larry Hensen, 25, single, an employee at Vanrook.

The plane crashed when it became lost and ran out of fuel while returning to Cairns from Vanrook. It had been called there when O'Loughlin had badly lacerated his face while working with timber on the station.

An inquiry into the crash will begin tomorrow, when the Superintendent of Air Navigation in Queensland (Mr. E. H. Fry) will arrive in Cairns. The Divisional Aircraft Surveyor for the Department of Civil Aviation (Mr. T. Shaw) arrived today from Townsville and will assist Mr. Fry.

After the crash the three survivors spent more than five hours swimming to the shore in shark-infested waters. They helped O'Loughlin in every way, but he was a weak swimmer, handicapped by injuries, and after two hours were unable to save him.

Today all three men were in the Cairns base hospital. Captain Hicks had lacerations to the side of his face, a sprained ankle, abrasions and shock. Howarth had the middle finger of the left hand fractured and suffered from abrasions and shock. Hansen received abrasions to the face and shock. Their condition is satisfactory. This afternoon Hicks and Howarth were taken home.

In hospital this morning Hicks said they owed their lives to a combination of luck and physical fitness. The impact of the crash dazed them and they did not know which way they had to swim to reach the shore. The plane floated only six minutes and when it sank, they struck out for a dark shape on the horizon which looked more like a cloud than land. The thought that they could have been swimming in the wrong direction was horrible.

Howarth said that before Monday night he had never swum more than 100 yards at a time, "but last night we just had to swim on." Howarth came to Cairns from Collinsville about two years ago.

Captain Hick's story is that the plane, with four men aboard, left Vanrook station at 5 p.m. on Monday. They
passed over Wrotham Park station and knew they were on the right track. At this stage they radioed the Cairns Aerodrome that they expected to arrive there at 7.25 p.m. At 7.35 pm. they had seen no landmarks. The smoke haze was very thick. The clouds were low and there was no moon.

Feeling that they were now over the sea. Captain Hicks turned back to where he judged the land to be, but could not see anything to help him to locate the position. He was afraid to go too far back lest he should fly into the mountains. He turned back towards the sea and zig-zagged through the darkness, seeking some landmark.

At 8 p.m. they had only one hour's fuel left. All this time efforts were being made to get radio aid without success. At 8.40 p.m. they felt that something drastic had to be done, so Captain Hicks took the plane down and, in a last endeavour to try to find where they were, he thought for a moment he could see a beach, but low clouds swept over it and hid it again.

Then, fearing the high lands close to the water, he turned away, and circled out to sea. The fuel ran out and Captain Hicks brought the plane down as slowly as he could to the water at a point which he imagined to be a few miles from the coast. The plane's speed when it hit the water would be about 80 miles an hour.

The four men were dazed by the impact and, when the plane sank, had to start swimming towards the dark shape they thought was land. They tried to break pieces off the plane for floats, but only managed to rip bits of its fabric.

O'Loughlin was a poor swimmer and the three others took turns in helping him along, after stripping off their clothes. After a short time, Hansen, a strong swimmer, said he would go ahead, try to reach the shore and get help.

Hicks and Howarth stayed with O'Loughlin and helped him along for about two hours when all three were utterly exhausted. At last, O'Loughlin sank and the other two men were unable to save him. They swam on and encouraged each other to keep going.

Finally, they heard the sound of breakers, and made last efforts to get ashore, climbing over the rocks, and, Hicks was not sure whether it was here that he sprained his ankle.

During the swim they were worried about sharks, as the water was very phosphorescent and the splashing, they feared, would attract them; but they saw none.

Hicks said he did not believe he could swim so far. He had had plenty of swimming experience, but Monday night's swim was the longest he had ever made.

When the plane was reported overdue Inspector W. Peters, of the Cairns police, felt that something had to be done although there was no indication as to where the plane might be, so about 11 p.m. he left Cairns with Constables D. Tranmore and S. T. Wilcox to patrol the Cook Highway north of Cairns. About 2.45 a.m. they found Hansen walking along towards Cairns, and five miles further back the other two men were picked up. Inspector Peters and his men gave the other men their shirts and singlets and took them to hospital.

Police searching the shore near Hartley's Creek for O'Loughlin's body or wreckage found nothing.

The Superintendent of the Cairns Ambulance Brigade (Mr. B. Clark) said that another plane would definitely be found to carry on the service.

This morning, he had flown over the scene of the crash in a bush pilot's Auster plane and saw the wreckage on the water and patches of oil two miles off Simpson's Point and four miles from the eastern tip of Double Island. With him in the plane were Pilot R. Norman, Captain D. Ludby and Captain R. Rowell. Another plane, piloted by Neville Mitchell, also searched the area.

Superintendent Clark, who had not been in bed since Monday morning, said that all possible efforts had been made by radio to help the plane. A call over station 4CA for motorists to take their cars to the Mareeba aerodrome and shine their headlights on it was splendidly answered this morning. It was hoped that a boat would go to the crash site to study salvage possibilities

The plane, which, was completed in February, 1950, cost £6000, and was insured for £5000. It was named the 'Gron Owens' after the late chairman of the Ambulance Committee, who did so much to establish and maintain the service. It was donated to the Cairns Ambulance Brigade by the people of Queensland when their old aircraft, the DH Dragon, was destroyed at Palmerville, 117 miles from Cairns, on December 1, 1949, while on an errand of mercy in the Peninsula".

Double Island Point - four miles east of where the DH.89 came down - is a coastal headland in Queensland, Australia. It is the next headland north of Noosa and is within the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park, at the southern end of Wide Bay. It is approximately 12 km south along the beach from the tourist township of Rainbow Beach.

NOTE: The DH.89 registered VH-CFA which crashed on 26.10.53 at Hinchinbrook Island, Queensland was not this aircraft, but its replacement (c/no. 6713, ex HG728, G-ALNT and VH-ATU - which see)

1. Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld.) Wednesday 28 Nov 1951 Page 1: 'CAIRNS AMBULANCE PLANE PLUNGES INTO SEA': https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/57108866
2. Queensland Times (Ipswich, Qld.) Tuesday 27 November 1951 Page 1: 'FEARS FOR MISSING PLANE': https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/118231517
3. Brisbane Telegraph (Brisbane Qld.) Wednesday 28 November 1951: Page 3 'IN AERIAL AMBULANCE CRASH': https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/216468637
4. Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW) Thursday 29 November 1951 Page 1 'QUEENSLAND AIR CRASH SURVIVORS': https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48662367
5. http://www.goodall.com.au/australian-aviation/dh89/dh89.htm
6. https://www.ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/dh89.pdf
7. https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-de-havilland-dh89-dragon-rapide-cairns-1-killed
8. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AKOC.pdf
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Island_Point

C/no. 6814: Taken on charge as NR726 at 5 MU RAF Kemble 28.11.44. To 87 Group Communications Flight/428 R & SU, Buc, France 4.10.45. To 87 Group Communications Flight, Le Bourget 21.3.46. To 18 MU RAF Dumfries 13.12.46 for storage pending disposal

Sold 11.3.48 to West Cumberland Air Services. Registered as G-AKOC (C of R 12090) 18.3.48 to William Arthur Herbert, Workington; operated by West Cumberland Air Services. C of A 10171 issued 20.7.48. Sold 10.6.49 (to unknown party). Registration cancelled 21.7.49 as sold abroad. Registered in Australia as VH-CFA 11.11.49 to Queensland Ambulance Transport Brigade, Cairns; named "Gron Owens".

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
10-Mar-2014 03:56	Dr. John Smith	Added
24-Jan-2018 14:04	TB	Updated [Location, Phase, Source, Narrative, ]
28-Feb-2019 01:47	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Location, Source, ]
28-Feb-2019 01:56	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative, ]
08-Jun-2022 09:02	Ron Averes	Updated [Location, ]
24-Mar-2025 08:04	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Category, ]