Date:	Saturday 3 March 1962
Time:	day
Type:	de Havilland DH-82A Tiger Moth
Owner/operator:	Agricultural Aviation Pty Ltd, Archerfield
Registration:	VH-SCF
MSN:	85472
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Hawkins Creek, near Ingham, Queensland -   Australia
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Agricultural
Departure airport:	Palm Island Airport, Palm Island, Queensland (PMK/YPAM)
Destination airport:	Hawkins Creek, near Ingham, Queensland

Narrative:
DH.82A Tiger Moth VH-SCF, Agricultural Aviation Pty Ltd, Archerfield, Brisbane, Queensland: Written off (damaged beyond repair) when struck wires and crashed at Hawkins Creek, near Ingham, Queensland 3.3.62 during agricultural (crop spraying/top dressing) operations. According to the summary from the DCA Report into the incident:

"Whilst spraying a field of sugar cane, the aircraft collided with power lines, the existence of which was known to the pilot and the aircraft crashed to the ground in a nose down attitude."

The incident was later reported in detail in the DCA Aviation Safety Digest (Issue 37, December 1963):

"Shortly after completing the morning programme of a spraying operation over some 470 acres of crop on a property in New South Wales the pilot of a DH-82 agreed to spray an additional 50 acres on an adjoining property. The owner of this property briefed the pilot concerning telephone lines obstructing the northern and eastern boundaries of the field and provided him with a rough sketch of the area.

The owner told the pilot that he did not think that there would be sufficient room to spray between a line oftrees bordering the eastern side of the field and the main telephone line which ran some 20 yards inside and parallel to the tree line. He believed it would be satisfactory to spray this area from above the level of the telephone line, but he did not refer to a branch telephone line which crossed the southern end of this confined corridor at right angles.

The pilot took off and, during an aerial inspection of the new area, located the two main telephone lines referred to by the owner but he did not see the branch line obstructing the corridor. As the spray markers were not yet in position the pilot completed an end run along the northern and southern boundaries of the field and then commenced a run to the north to spray the confined corridor along the eastern boundary from below the level of the telephone wires. It was his intention on reaching a large tree and just as the pilot commenced the manoeuvre around the tree, the aircraft struck the two wires of the branch telephone line.

The pilot immediately attempted to climb the aircraft away but, after reaching a height of approximately 80 feet, the aircraft was pulled downward and to the right in a sideslipping attitude and crashed to the ground on the starboard mainplanes. It was subsequently found that the wire had become entangled in the port mainplanes and a 400 feet length trailing behind the aircraft had snagged in the branches of a tree.

The pilot has stated that, as he was under some pressure of time to carry out this additional work, he did not conduct an inspection from the ground for obstructions in the vicinity of the treatment area as was his usual practice; he relied instead upon the information provided by the property owner in conjunction with an aerial inspection. There is nothing new about this accident. It conforms to an oftrepeated sequence of events.

Clearly a more thorough aerial inspection of the particular area or a ground inspection could have prevented the accident".

Ex-T6105 (RAF Serial), G-AKXG, VH-KYA. Registration VH-SCF cancelled 4.12.62.

Hawkins Creek is a rural locality in the Shire of Hinchinbrook, Queensland, Australia. The locality is bounded to the south-east, south, south-west, and west by the Herbert River, and to the north-west loosely by the Mount Leach Range.

1. https://air-britain.com/pdfs/production-lists/DH82.pdf
2. https://airwaysmuseum.com/Downloads/DCA%20accident%20reports%201956%20to%201968%20v2.pdf
3. DCA Aviation Safety Digest (Issue 38, December 1963): https://www.atsb.gov.au/sites/default/files/media/5774733/asd_36_dec_63.pdf
4. Royal Air Force Aircraft T1000-V9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1980)
5. As G-AKXG 1948-1955: https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AKXG.pdf
6. As VH-KYA 1955-1957: https://www.austairdata.com.au/component/rsdirectory/entry/view/24808:vh-kya-1
7. As VH-SCF 1957-1962: https://www.austairdata.com.au/component/rsdirectory/entry/view/32177:vh-scf-1
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Island_Airport
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawkins_Creek,_Queensland

c/no. 85472: Built by Morris Motors at Cowley, Oxford. Taken on charge by the RAF as T6105 at 45 MU RAF Kinloss 7.5.41. To 60 OTU RAF Leconfield 14.5.41 (possibly not delivered?). To RAF Northolt Station Flight 18.5.41. To 61 OTU, RAF Rednal 4.2.43. Badly damaged at USAAF Station 582, Warton 9.6.43 (reportedly while on charge of 311th FR Squadron USAAF) when struck by Anson N9642; repaired and returned to service. To 657 (AOP) Squadron, RAF Andover 4.7.46.

Struck off charge when sold 29.4.48 to Aircraft & Engineering Services Ltd, Croydon Airport, Croydon, Surrey. Registered as G-AKXG (C of R 12292) 10.4.48 to Surrey Financial Trust Ltd, Croydon. Registration cancelled 16.6.48 and re-registered 24.6.48 to W.A. Rollason Ltd, Croydon Airport, Croydon, Surrey. C of A 10233
issued 8.6.49. Registration cancelled 12.6.50 and re-registered 16.6.50 to Spray and Win Ltd, London EC2 (based at Panshanger, Hertfordshire, having been converted to prototype crop-duster for them by Rollason\'s of Croydon under an Airworthy Approval Note issued 5.6.50). UK Registration G-AKXG cancelled 30.3.55 as \'sold to Australia\'.

Re-registered in Australia VH-KYA (C of R 2118) 30.3.55 to Agricultural Aviation Pty Ltd, Archerfield. Struck power-lines and crashed Mulgowie, Queensland 31.8.56; repaired and returned to service. Badly damaged
in forced landing after take-off near Gatton, Queensland 30.4.57. Re-registered VH-SCF in September 1957 to Agricultural Aviation Pty Ltd, Archerfield.

Written off (damaged beyond repair) when struck wires and crashed at Hawkins Creek, near Ingham, Queensland 3.3.62. Registration VH-SCF cancelled 4.12.62.

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
11-Jun-2025 05:19	Dr. John Smith	Added