Date:	Friday 3 May 1940
Time:	day
Type:	de Havilland DH.89A Dragon Rapide
Owner/operator:	Wearne's Air Service
Registration:	VR-SAV
MSN:	6360
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Waterfall Rubber Estate near Rawang, Gombak District, Selangor -   Malaysia
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Passenger - Scheduled
Departure airport:	Penang, Straits Settlement, Malaysia
Destination airport:	Kallang Airport, Kallang, Singapore

Narrative:
C/no. 6360: C of A 5930 issued 28.5.37; delivered to Singapore 19.6.37. (2 x Gipsy Six #6683/6684). First civil registered as VR-SAV [C of R 21] 6.7.37 to Wearne Bros Ltd t/a Wearne's Air Service, Kallang, Singapore; named "Governor Raffles"; but reportedly entered service 28.6.37 after arriving 21.6.37 following the delivery flight. Re-registered [C of R 28] 7.1.38 to Wearnes Air Service Ltd, Singapore.

The airplane departed Penang, Straits Settlement, Malaysia on a flight to Singapore-Kallang Airport, carrying three people. While cruising in thunderstorm activity, the pilot lost control of the airplane and crashed on the Waterfall Estate rubber plantation located near Rawang, some 30 km north of Kuala Lumpur. The airplane was destroyed, and all three occupants were killed, including pilot Captain George McCausland (35), passengers John Samuel Radford (36) and Herbert Charles Pinching (51).

As reported at the time in a contemporary newspaper ("Hobart Mercury", Hobart, Tasmania 6 May 1940 p.1):

"AIR CRASH
Sydney Pilot Killed
THREE DEATHS
SINGAPORE, May 4.
In Malaya's first Internal air service fatality today, three persons, including the Sydney born pilot Çapt. George McCausland aged 35 were killed. The others were Messrs H. C. Pinching and J. A. Radford.

One of Wearne's Air Services twin engine machines was returning to Singapore from Penang when, in a heavy thunderstorm it crashed on a rubber estate at Rawang near Kuala Lumpur (Central Malaya). Mr. McCausland's wife and child are at Singapore.

Mr. McCausland learned to fly as a member of the Royal Australian Air Force. Entering commercial aviation he became a pilot on the Perth to Daly Waters route, and in 1937 went to Malaya.

When he inaugurated his internal air service in Malaya he had had 11,000 hours of flying, equivilent to 1,230,000 miles. Piloting machines up and down the 300 miles length of the peninsula he had flown more than 300,000 miles in Malaya alone.

It is believed that he was piloting a DH89 when he crashed — one of the Wearne Co.'s machines, which W. R. Carpenter's Airlines had arranged to purchase for its Sydney-Rabaul service.

The funeral service will be held at Ridadari cemetery in Singapore on Sunday, after which the body will be cremated at the Japanese burial ground. The ashes will he scattered over the sea from an aeroplane on Monday or Tuesday".

Rawang is a town and a mukim in Gombak District, Selangor, Malaysia, about 23 km northwest of city centre Kuala Lumpur.

1. https://www.ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/dh89.pdf
2. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/gy/reg_VR-S.html
3. The Hobart Mercury (Hobert Tasmania 6 May 1940, p.1): https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/25801099
4. Sunday Mail (Brisbane, Qld) Sun 5 May 1940 Page 5 AUSTRALIAN KILLED IN AIR CRASH: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/98245465
5. Townsville Daily Bulletin (Townsville, Qld.) Mon 6 May 1940 Page 4 AIR FATALITY IN MALAYA: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/62844832
6 http://www.afleetingpeace.org/index.php/aeroplanes/15-aeroplanes/93-register-other
7. Sunday Tribune 21 June 1937
8. http://www.rcawsey.co.uk/Accmisc.htm
9. https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-de-havilland-dh89-dragon-rapide-rawang-3-killed
10. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/225017883/george-mccausland
11. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/113930371/john_samuel-radford
12. Charles Herbet Pinching Wills & Probate 1940: National Archives (PRO Kew) File FO 917/3934 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1951320
13. https://www.raf-butterworth-penang-association.org.uk/newsletter/backnumbers/Issue_31_Christmas_2011.pdf p.11 & p.13
14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rawang,_Selangor

DH.89A Dragon Rapide VR-SAV VR-SAV arrives after delivery flight 21 June 1937 ("Sunday Tribune", 21 June 1937) VR-SAV at Kallang Airport, Singapore

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
16-Feb-2019 23:37	Dr. John Smith	Added
24-Feb-2019 20:58	TB	Updated [Operator, Location, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, ]
19-Mar-2019 20:23	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, ]
08-Jul-2022 10:14	Ron Averes	Updated [Location, ]
15-Mar-2025 23:21	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Nature, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Category, ]
16-Mar-2025 21:56	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Embed code, ]
16-Mar-2025 22:00	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Embed code, Narrative, ]