This Day in History: 1945-01-31

On 31 January 1945 Stinson Model A VH-UYY “Tokana” of Australian National Airways departed from Melbourne for a flight of 127 nautical miles (235 km) to Kerang, Victoria—the first leg of a regular scheduled service to Broken Hill, New South Wales. It crashed 50 nautical miles (93 km) from Melbourne. All ten occupants were killed in the accident. The aircraft was one of four Stinsons imported in 1936 by Airlines of Australia (AoA). Three had now crashed with the loss of 17 lives, and the fourth would not be permitted to fly again.
It was determined that the accident was caused by a fatigue crack in the main spar of the left wing that caused the outer part of the left wing, outboard of the engine nacelle, to separate from the remainder of the aircraft. The expert panel investigating the accident believed this to be the first fatal aircraft accident anywhere in the world directly attributable to metal fatigue. Source: Wikipedia