This Day in History: 1938-10-25

On 25 October 1938 while completing a flight from Adelaide to Melbourne, Australian National Airways Douglas DC-2 VH-UYC Kyeema overshot Essendon in dirty weather conditions and collided with the crest of Mt Dandenong. All 18 aboard were killed making this by far the worst aircraft accident experienced in Australia to that time. The resultant public inquiry provided a forum for a general airing of grievances including newspaper allegations that the AAIC had gagged the press by refusing to allow publication of evidence of defects in Anson aircraft. The government reacted promptly; the Civil Aviation Branch was abolished and the creation of a Department of Civil Aviation received formal approval on 5 December 1938. Seven days later, Mr. Thorby announced the government’s intention to establish a permanent Air Court of Inquiry. Source: Aviation Heritage Vol 42 No 3 September 2011, see also Macarthur Job, Disaster In The Dandenongs: The Kyeema Airliner Tragedy, Sierra Publishing (2008), ISBN-10: 0980468647, ISBN-13: 978-0980468649