ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 28642
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| Date: | Wednesday 11 December 1957 |
| Time: | night |
| Type: | de Havilland DH.84 Dragon |
| Owner/operator: | Muir Airlines |
| Registration: | VH-DMA |
| MSN: | 6029 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 3 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | 8 miles S of Katherine, NT -
 Australia
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Cargo |
| Departure airport: | Katherine, NT |
| Darwin, Northern Territories, Australia | |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
First registered in August of 1933 as VH-URE, it went to WA Airways Ltd of Perth. WAA's founder Norman Brearley flew the Dragon that same month on its first airline service up the WA coast to Derby, and reported it was "the nicest machine I have ever flown. The convenience of being able to converse with passengers during flight made a wonderful difference".
Like several other of WAA's machines, it then went to Adelaide Airways before being transferred to Australian National Airways who named it 'Yanana'.
By 1940 it was flying with Australian Aerial Medical Services (NSW Section). This organization became the Flying Doctor Service of Australia in 1942 operating out of Broken Hill, NSW and remained there on this essential service during the war, being re-registered VH-FDB on 30/9/48.
After numerous adventures and accidents, it was replaced by a DHA-3 Drover and sold to Doug Muir at Darwin NT for charter work and re-registered again to VH-DMA in November 1956.
Written off (damaged beyond repair) 11 December 1957: Crashed and overturned 8 miles south of Katherine, NT, whilst on a charter flight for CSIRO. Pilot F.A.Southwell. Per the DCA Accident report: "The aircraft turned to the right soon after takeoff but failed to climb and after travelling some 8 miles was landed in an open field and overturned. Probably the amount and distribution of load reduced the performance capacity such that the aircraft could not reach a safe manoeuvring height."
It was reported that remains of DH.84 Dragons VH-DMA and VH-DMB were burnt as a Guy Fawkes Night bonfire at Darwin Airport (presumably on 5 November 1959). VH-DMB was officially Struck-off the Australian Civil Register on 9 May 1958
Sources:
1. http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac1/austu/VH-URE.html
2. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/p060.html
3. http://www.goodall.com.au/australian-aviation/dh84-pt1/dh84-dragon-pt1.htm
4. http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac1/austcl/VH-FDB(1).html
5. https://email.ipage.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=84&Itemid=27
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 27-Sep-2008 01:00 | ASN archive | Added |
| 01-Jan-2012 12:00 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Registration, Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Damage, Narrative] |
| 25-Mar-2014 01:00 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Location, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 25-Mar-2014 20:29 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Narrative] |
| 07-Jun-2022 10:06 | Ron Averes | Updated [Location] |
| 12-Nov-2022 09:25 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Time, Narrative] |
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