CAC Boomerang – Aviation Historical Society of Australia

DerekB09/03/202609/03/2026

Outlook AHSA Newsletter February 2026

The AHSA newsletter, Outlook, is back - with a new editor, Jarryd Cripps. The February 2026 edition of Outlook / AHSA News was distributed...

DerekB30/09/202319/11/2023

Aviation Heritage Vol. 54 No. 3 (September 2023) Contents Listing

The latest quarterly AHSA journal – Aviation Heritage – has recently been posted to members. The contents of all articles are listed below: Aviation...

DerekB30/11/202223/11/2024

Australian aviation history digital archive

In its mission to preserve and promote Australia's aviation heritage, the AHSA hosts the following digital archives. Click on the image to go to...

DerekB27/04/202204/06/2023

The Aircraft Projects of Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation

This new book by author and AHSA member Joe Vella has just been published (April 2022). Joe began writing this book in 1983 when...

DerekB29/09/202027/12/2022

Australian-built Aircraft and the Industry (Vol 2) by Keith Meggs

The latest book released by author Keith Meggs Volume 2 of this encyclopaedic work (containing only one chapter, being chapter 15, spread across two...

1940 Lockheed Hudson I A16-27 operated by 23 Squadron RAAF crashed near Stradbroke Island, Qld on 12 August 1940. Operating from Archerfield airfield, the aircraft failed to return from a navigational exercise at sea. Its wireless faded out 20 minutes after takeoff, and nothing more was heard. An oil slick found 18 miles east of Jumpin Pin, between North and South Stradbroke Islands. The 6 crew members lost were PLTOFF Walter Keith Beeston (2nd pilot), FLTSGT Dudley Howard Downs, FLGOFF Mervyn Stephen Matthews (pilot), FLTSGT Hamilton James O'Gorman, LAC George Leslie Savage, and AC1 Francis John Starr. Sources: ADF-Serials; aviation-safety.net website.

1991 A Thai Airways DC-10 overshot a Sydney Airport runway to just miss an incoming Ansett Airbus A320 and a waiting Qantas Boeing 747, controlled under SIMOPS on 12 August 1991. The 667 people on board the respective aircraft were unharmed. Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 13 August 1991 and 3 July 1993. ATSB Occurrence Report, 15 Feb. 1993 via aph.gov.au website

2008 Qantas said on 12 August 2008 that it would remove six B737-400 aircraft from service while it cross-checked maintenance records relating to aircraft modification work carried out at one of its Australian facilities. Commentator Crikey.com said that it was not yet known if the lack of maintenance documentation found by Qantas would identify a failure to complete compulsory work on the B737 nose bulkheads or not. Pressure bulkheads like those in the six temporarily grounded Qantas B737-400s were vital to safe flight. The overseas disasters listed herein for 12 August 1985 and 26 May 2002 were attributed to bulkhead losses. Source: Qantas Statement on B737 Records,Issued by Qantas Corporate Communication (3802), 12 August 2008. Ben Sandilands, ’13. Bulkhead blues another blow to Qantas' reputation’, Crikey.com, 13 August 2008. via aph.gov.au website

2012 Qantas Boeing 747-438 (cn 25566/1239) VH-OJU “Lord Howe Island” landed in Sydney on 12 August 2012 carrying the Australian Olympic team on their return to Australia from the 2012 London Olympics. The aircraft was decorated for the occasion, wearing a boxing kangaroo logo on the nose of the aircraft and boxing gloves applied to the kangaroo of the Qantas logo on the tail fin. The usual "Spirit of Australia" tag line was replaced with "Spirit of the Australian Team". The flight carrying the Olympic team flew from London Stansted - Bangkok - Sydney. Source: Aviation WA website