The Crash of Kyeema
Posted by: Next!
S 37° 49.965 E 145° 20.961
55H E 354743 N 5811457
From this accident came the impetus for reform of
Australia’s air navigation system, with benefits to air travellers
to the present day.
Waymark Code: WM16QE
Location: Victoria, Australia
Date Posted: 02/04/2007
Views: 293
TUESDAY, 25 OCTOBER 1938 WAS TO
become a milestone in Australia’s
civil aviation development.
On that day, a 14 passenger DC-2,VH-UYC
Kyeema, was scheduled for ANA services from
Melbourne to Adelaide and return.Rostered
for the flight were Captain AC Webb and First
Officer AJ Steen,Hostess Elva Jones and cadet
pilot Phillip Pring.
After an early departure from a grey and
overcast Melbourne, the 2 1/2 hour flight to
Adelaide was uneventful, except for a minor
technical problem with the aircraft’s radio
receiver.The radio receiver was changed,and
the aircraft was soon ready for the return trip
to Melbourne.
The 14 passengers booked for that leg
included a member of Federal Parliament,
Mr CA Hawker MHR,who was on his way to
Canberra from his South Australian electorate.
Pausing while its engines were run up in
turn, Kyeema then turned slowly into wind,
its engines roared as both throttles were
opened for take-off, and it surged forward,
gathering speed.Within seconds, the aeroplane
lifted off the ground, the undercarriage
retracted, and it climbed away. It was
10.55am, South Australian time.
At around 1.30pm, Essendon aerodrome
radio operator, Bill Lauder-Cridge, pushed
the headphones back from his ears.He was
glad for a moment’s respite; he had been on
duty since 7am.
A few minutes later the call he was
expecting crackled in his headphones. It was
Kyeema, making its second call to him on its
morning service from Adelaide. The first had
been half an hour before, when the DC2
reported 20 miles south of St Arnaud at
11,000ft. Its estimated time of arrival (ETA)
Essendon was 1.45pm.
“Kyeema calling Essendon.Passing Dayles-ford, altitude 7,000ft, course 110 degrees”.
The voice transmission, a little nervous and
stilted, was not from Webb or Steen. It was
the young ANA cadet, Philip Pring.
Lauder-Cridge read the latest Essendon
observation: overcast cloud at 1,500ft in the
Melbourne area, extending to 4,000ft.
Beneath it was a broken layer at 800ft. The
wind was a light southerly. He added,
“There’s a few breaks now towards the south
– down over the bay”.
“Weather received OK”,Webb replied.“We
may require a bearing from you later.We’re
about to enter the overcast at 4,000ft.”
There was a short interval, then Ansett’s
Lockheed 10 VH-UZO, en-route to Essendon
from Hamilton, called with a position report
at Lake Bolac. Its signal was strong and it
jammed a further transmission from
Kyeema.
As soon as he was finished with the Ansett
aircraft, Lauder-Cridge called the DC-2 again:
“Did you call for a bearing? I was working
Ansett’s Lockheed”.
“Yes”, Kyeema replied. “What is your
barometer, please?” “Barometer 29.88”,
Lauder-Cridge responded. “If you want a
bearing, keep your transmitter on.”
The DC-2 acknowledged the call but didn’t
leave its transmitter on.
By 1.59pm there was still no sign of
Kyeema. A little uneasy, Lauder-Cridge called
the DC-2 again:“Kyeema, what is your position?
Transmit while I take a bearing.” A minute later, ANA’s DC-3, Kurana,
inbound from Sydney, called with a position
report. “Where’s Kyeema?” its crew
asked.
Lauder-Cridge asked them to try calling the
DC-2 themselves. Again there was no reply.
Concerned, he picked up the telephone
that provided a direct line to the control
tower. “We’ve lost contact with Kyeema”,
Lauder-Cridge reported.
An appalling sight: Around 1.45pm, in the
quietness of the fog-enshrouded bush, Bob
Logan and Tom Murphy were clearing
undergrowth from the side of Ridge Road on
Mt Dandenong. They became aware of the
distant whine of an aeroplane; the sound was
coming from the west, roughly in the
direction ofMelbourne.And it seemed to be
getting louder.
The noise continued to grow in intensity;
it wasn’t just a whine now – they could hear
the powerful throb of the engines as well.
Suddenly the noise of the engines and
propellers was overlaid by a loud screeching;
an instant later there was the sound of
smashing metal, then came a tremendous
explosion which shook the ground beneath
their feet.
The two men ran in the direction of the
crash. Fifty yards ahead, just a little way down
the steep slope, they saw great orange flames
leaping up into the trees, as clouds of black
smoke billowed into the fog.
It was an appalling sight.Except for the tail,
and the wing sections that had been sheared
off by the trees, the aircraft was burning
fiercely, the intense heat preventing the men
from getting close.
They could see where the aeroplane had
lopped off the tree-tops before the wings had
been torn from the fuselage, and it had shattered
itself against the mountainside. There
were no survivors.
Public inquiry: News of the tragedy shocked
the nation more profoundly than any
previous air accident. The air accidents investigation
committee began its formal public
inquiry in the Melbourne exhibition buildings
3 days after the accident.
It established that the DC-2 VH-UYC
Kyeema had departed Parafield at 11.22am
Eastern Standard Time. Its flight planned ETA
at Essendon was 1.45pm. The Inquiry was
satisfied that the aircraft was in all respects
airworthy.
Weather conditions over the route were
excellent for the
most of the trip;
during this time the
aircraft maintained
visual contact with
the ground. In the
Melbourne area,
however, within a
radius of 40 miles from Essendon, the sky
was overcast by a layer of cloud extending
from 1,500ft to 4,500ft. Below this primary
layer there was about eight tenths of broken
cloud with a base of about 800ft. The wind
was a light southerly.
While letting down from cruising level in
cloud, Kyeema had passed to the north of
Essendon aerodrome and continued on the
same heading until it crashed into Mt
Dandenong.From the Essendon radio operator’s
log the aircraft’s clock and a charred
pocket watch found in the wreckage, the time
of the crash could be fixed as 1.45pm – the
crew’s flight planned ETA for Essendon.
The aircraft had overshot Essendon and let
down into the mountain at the very time the
crew were expecting to break out of cloud
over the airfield.Yet Mt Dandenong was 20
miles beyond Essendon.How could an experienced
crew have made such a gross navigational
error?
An analysis of the DC-2’s flight times and
position reports showed that a navigational
discrepancy had occurred during the latter
part of the trip. From reports transmitted
abeam Lake Hindmarsh at 12.33pm and St
Arnaud at 1.04pm while the aircraft was
cruising at 11,000ft, it was evident that the DC-
2 was maintaining a ground speed of 177mph.
On this basis, it would have been due over
Daylesford at 1.25pm – or even earlier if the
crew commenced descent before reaching
Daylesford. But
the “passing
Daylesford”report
was not transmitted
until 7
minutes later at
1.32pm, when the
aircraft’s height
was reported as 7,000ft. Evidently on
descent at this stage, its ground speed would
have been higher than earlier and, in the 7
minutes that had elapsed since the aircraft’s
ETA Daylesford, it would have flown at least
a further 21 miles.
Inaccurate log: It appeared to the inquiry
that the position report had probably been
given when the aircraft was actually over
Sunbury or Gisborne – townships 20 miles
closer to Essendon than Daylesford.
The inquiry found that the crew failed to
keep an accurate log of the aircraft’s time
intervals and ground speeds between
reporting points.Without a correct reporting
point ETA to prompt them, the crew apparently
missed sighting the real Daylesford.
This set the stage for the misinterpretation of
their position after the aircraft encountered
cloud several minutes later.
Out of the inquiry’s recommendations
would come immediate action to equip
Australia’s airways network with a chain of
efficient radio ranges that would give instant
and accurate navigational information to
aircraft crews.
A flight checking system was also set up,
heralding the birth of Australia’s system of air
traffic control.
But perhaps most significantly, the report
of the Kyeema inquiry would finally seal the
fate of the old Civil Aviation Board as a
subsidiary of the Department of Defence.For
the first time, the role being played by civil
aviation, and its importance to the life of the
nation, was to be accorded the official
government recognition it now deserved
with the establishment of the Department of
Civil Aviation.
Web Address for Related Web Sites: [Web Link]
Date of Crash: 10/25/1938
Aircraft Model: DC-2
Military or Civilian: Civilian
Tail Number: VH-UYC
Cause of Crash: The inquiry found that the crew failed to
keep an accurate log of the aircraft’s time
intervals and ground speeds between
reporting points.Without a correct reporting
point ETA to prompt them, the crew apparently
missed sighting the real Daylesford.
This set the stage for the misinterpretation of
their position after the aircraft encountered
cloud several minutes later.
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