IPEC Aviation – Aviation Historical Society of Australia

DerekB03/06/202306/06/2023

Aviation Heritage Vol. 54 No. 2 (June 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...

1969 While carrying a group of boarding school children on a charter flight from Nauru to Australia on 6 February 1969, Qantas Douglas DC-4 VH-EDA 'Pacific Trader' (c/n 42917-12) suffered a nose-gear failure while landing at Port Moresby. There were no injuries and all passengers and crew evacuated the aircraft safely. Source: adastron.com website

2023 Two pilots survived the crash of Coulson Aviation Boeing 737-3 FireLiner N619SW "Tanker 139" in the Fitzgerald River National Park, about 460 kilometres south-east of Perth, WA on 6 February 2023. The Boeing 737-3 took off from Busselton at about 3:25pm and WA Police said it crashed at about 4:40pm, the two pilots onboard were retrieved from the crash site by helicopter and airlifted to Ravensthorpe Health Service. St John Ambulance WA said the two pilots are not believed to be seriously injured. Authorities said the pilots managed to free themselves from the Boeing 737 Fireliner after it came down. Coulson Aviation issued a statement reading "One of our 737 FireLiner’s, Tanker 139, operating in Western Australia, was involved in an accident while tasked to a fire on Monday, 6 February 2023. The aircraft had two on board at the time of the accident. Both pilots walked away from the accident, and have been medically assessed. Our thoughts and our immediate concern is for those team members and their families. We are very grateful the two team members on Tanker 139 are safe." The Australian Transport Safety Bureau issued a statement that they were "launching a transport safety investigation into an accident involving a 737 large air tanker (firebomber aircraft) in the Fitzgerald River National Park south of Ravensthorpe, WA on Monday afternoon. The ATSB is assembling a team of transport safety investigators from its Perth and Canberra offices with experience in aircraft operations and maintenance, human factors and data recovery to conduct the evidence collection phase of the investigation. Initially, investigators will seek to interview the pilots and witnesses to understand the circumstances of the accident, and determine the accessibility of the accident site with the aim of conducting an on-site examination of the aircraft wreckage." Sources: Coulson Aviation; ABC News; ATSB