This Day in History: 1968-12-31

A MacRobertson Miller Airlines Vickers Viscount aircraft VH-RMQ departed from Perth, Western Australia on 31 December 1968, for a flight of 724 nautical miles (1,341 km) to Port Hedland. MMA flight 1750 crashed 28 nautical miles (52 km) short of its destination with the loss of all twenty-six people on board. More than half of the right wing, from outboard of the inner engine to the wingtip, including the outer engine and its propeller, broke away from the rest of the aircraft in flight and struck the ground a significant distance from the main wreckage. Investigation by the Australian Department of Civil Aviation and British Aircraft Corporation concluded that a bushing in an engine to main-spar attachment fitting had been hammered into place during maintenance, leading to extensive fatigue cracking in the right wing spar. This accident remains the third worst in Australia’s civil aviation history. Source: Flight Safety Australia