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| Date: | Wednesday 26 January 1944 |
| Time: | day |
| Type: |  de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide |
| Owner/operator: | Australian National Airways |
| Registration: | VH-ADE |
| MSN: | 6341 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 6 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Princess Charlotte Bay, 13 miles south of Cape Sidmouth, Queensland -
 Australia
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Essendon, Melbourne, Victoria (MEB/YMEN) |
| Cairns, Queensland |
c/no 6341: Registered G-AENO [C of R 7345] 22.9.36 to Blackpool & West Coast Air Services Ltd, Blackpool. C of A 5667 issued 10.11.36. Name changed 6.12.37 to West Coast Air Services Ltd. Registration cancelled 2.2.38 as sold abroad [and CofA renewed 10.2.38]. Registered EI-ABP 24.2.38 to Aer Lingus; named "Iolar II" (since it replaced DH.84 EI-ABI). Damaged at Croydon 21.5.38; repaired and returned to service.
Registration cancelled 10.2.40 as 'sold to Australia'. Erected Port Adelaide and test flown 19.6.40. Registered VH-ADE 27.6.40 to Guinea Airways Ltd, Adelaide; named "Morobe". Registration cancelled 10.9.40.
Impressed into RAAF as A33-7 and to 1 EFTS Parafield 25.8.40. To 3 EFTS Essendon 24.12.40. To 1 AOS Cootamundra 13.1.41. To DCA 15.4.42 and restored as VH-ADE 20.4.42 to Commonwealth of Australia, Dept of Aviation; operated by Australian National Airways Pty Ltd, Melbourne.
Written off 26.1.44: Forced landing on a beach 13 miles south of Cape Sidmouth, at Princess Charlotte Bay, Queensland. Large air search launched after the Rapide reported missing. Located next day (27.1.44) by RAAF 11 Squadron Catalina A24-55 “FJ-E” which landed on water and picked up the passengers and mail from the beach.
The following entries are from 103 Fighter Sector Headquarters Operations Record Book refer to this incident:
27 January 1944
This Sector co-operated with Aeradio, Garbutt in endeavoring to locate Rapide VH-ADE which had left Cooktown for Iron Range and was long overdue. The aircraft had been in touch with Aeradio but message had broken off and nothing further was received. A V.A.O.C. sighting was reported through Cairns of an aircraft, believed to be the Rapide, 90 miles north of Cooktown.
28 January 1944
At 11:00 hours Aeradio advised that Rapide VH-ADE had been located by Catalina, 13 miles south of Cape Sidmouth, in the sea.
Aircraft stripped on the beach by an ANA crew for spare parts. Components stored in the ANA hangar at Cairns, later moved to a shed on Cairns aerodrome. Other remains abandoned on site and registration cancelled 14.3.44. Spares holding for this aircraft at Cairns transferred to Airlines (WA) Ltd to assist in overhaul of VH-UZY in Oct 1944.
Sources:
1. https://www.ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/dh89.pdf
2. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AENO.pdf
3. http://www.afleetingpeace.org/index.php/15-aeroplanes/79-register-gb-g-ae
4. http://www.goodall.com.au/australian-aviation/dh89/dh89.htm
5. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/gy/reg_G-A9.html
6. http://www.afleetingpeace.org/index.php/15-aeroplanes/84-register-australia
7. https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-de-havilland-dh89a-dragon-rapide-near-cape-sidmouth
8. http://www.adf-serials.com.au/2a33.htm
9. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/p063.html
10. https://www.ozatwar.com/ozcrashes/qld255.htm
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Charlotte_Bay
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 27-Sep-2008 01:00 | ASN archive | Added |
| 28-Dec-2011 08:20 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Cn, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Source, Damage, Narrative, ] |
| 10-Mar-2014 03:25 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, ] |
| 10-Mar-2014 03:27 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Narrative, ] |
| 29-Jan-2018 21:45 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Time, Departure airport, Source, ] |
| 20-Feb-2019 18:25 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Source, Narrative, ] |
| 09-Jun-2022 22:19 | Ron Averes | Updated [Location, ] |
| 23-Mar-2025 20:15 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Location, Source, Narrative, Category, ] |
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