This Day in History: 1928-09-04

de Havilland DH.50J G-AUHI ‘Hermes’ operated by QANTAS crashed near Golden Grove, South Australia on 4 September 1928. The aircraft crashed in hilly country in bad weather not long into a flight from Adelaide to Longreach. It spun in from 1,800 feet in cloud, and was destroyed by fire. The pilot, C.W.A.Scott, received burns and a broken jaw but the engineer, George Nutson, suffered burns and other injuries from which he died in hospital. Charles Scott was reprimanded by the management of QANTAS for not delaying his flight until better weather prevailed and for making an unauthorised change to the route to Longreach.
Scott went on to make a number of notable flights including winning the 1934 London to Melbourne air race with co-pilot Tom Campbell Black. Source: aviation-safety.net website