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1940 Lockheed Hudson Mk II A16-97 operated by 2 Squadron RAAF crashed at Canberra, ACT on 13 August 1940. Based at Laverton, A16-97 was the first RAAF Hudson to be fitted with passenger seating and was tasked with flying James Fairbairn, the Minister for Air and Civil Aviation from Melbourne to Canberra for a cabinet meeting. In addition to the RAAF crew of four (pilot FLTLT Robert Edward Hitchcock, PLTOFF Richard Frederick Wiesener, CPL John Frederick Palmer and AC1 Charles Joseph Crosdale), Fairbairn invited three other senior officials to join him on the flight – Geoffrey Street, Minister for the Army; Henry Gullett, Minister for Information, and General Brudenell White, Chief of the General Staff. Fairbairn's private secretary Dick Elford and White's staff officer Frank Thornthwaite were the two other passengers. The Perth Daily News reported: "The plane was seen by watchers at the Canberra Aerodrome and the Air Force station to circle the drome, and then rise and head south. It disappeared behind a low tree-dotted hill. There was an explosion and a sheet of flame, followed by a dense cloud of smoke... The Canberra Fire Brigade and ambulances from Canberra and Queanbeyan, across the border in New South Wales, as well as several Air Force tenders, arrived soon afterwards and fire extinguishers were played on the blazing wreckage. After about half-an-hour, when the blaze had died down, it was seen that the entire undercarriage, wings and structural supports of the plane had been torn away and were a smouldering mass in which were the charred bodies of those on board." The Court of Inquiry into the accident found that it was most likely from the aircraft stalling on its landing approach, resulting in loss of control at a height too low to recover. Sources: aviation-safety.net website; Hazlehurst, Cameron (2013). Ten Journeys to Cameron's Farm: An Australian Tragedy. Canberra: ANU E Press. ISBN 9781925021011

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