Crash of a C-47 Dakota at Rockhampton airfield, Queensland during take-off on 8 December 1944

CRASH OF A C-47 DAKOTA DURING TAKE-OFF
AND COLLISION WITH ANOTHER C-47
AT ROCKHAMPTON AIRFIELD, QLD
ON 8 DECEMBER 1944

C-47A-20-DK Dakota #42-93244 c/n 13134 crashed on taking off at the end of 043 degree runway at Rockhampton airfield and ran into another C-47 #42-92928 on 8 December 1944. C-47 Dakota #42-93244 was a complete writeoff and luckily no personnel were injured. The port aileron of #42-92928 was damaged.

The aircraft spent some weeks on Canoona Road where the local kids managed to obtain many bits and pieces. Bob Mullins had the perspex from the toilet window of the C-47 to make brooches and his friend Bert Cairns (now deceased who eventually joined the RAAF) had the wheel from the joystick and other bits and pieces.

On 22 December 1944, C-47 Dakota #42-93244 was destroyed by fire after all movable parts were stripped from the wrecked aircraft. #42-92928 was repaired.

On 26 June 2023, John Best told me that at the age of five, his father took him through the burnt out remains of a U.S. "Dakota" that overshot the runway at Rockhampton airport on takeoff and crashed into the perimeter fence. John's father worked for the Main Roads Commission (Allied Works Council) on the Inland Defence Roads construction and must have had insider knowledge about the crash through work. He told John that the C-47 had crashed some days before and the USAAF then dragged the plane across the external perimeter road and set fire to it. John had no idea which road this was on, but logically it must have been a road at the end of the runway and accessible to the public, which fits Canoona Road.

John said they went to take a look after the fire was out, but there was not much left by then and all they took home were a few small souvenirs like melted aluminium and pulleys. John has a clear recollection that this visit to the wreckage occurred on the day his sister was born 23 December 1944, stopping on the way home from the hospital. That was the day after the wreckage was set on fire.

Bob Mullins remembers visiting most of the crashes in the Rockhampton area that I have listed on my web pages. He had a piece of propeller blade from the Spitfire and last year donated it to the Caloundra Aircraft Museum. On the propeller blade he had painted the date and details of the crash. This would be available from the Caloundra Museum. He remembers the Liberator, Spitfire, Beaufighter and Kittyhawk crashes. After the Coral Sea battle a B-17 Flying Fortress landed at Connor Park all shot up and lost a propeller on its landing approach, with the propeller landing in the mud on the edge of the Fitzroy River. Unfortunately 12 year old kids did not keep diaries so Bob has no specific dates.

I'd like to thank Bob Mullins who as a boy lived near Connor Park airfield in Rockhampton.

I'd also like to thank John Best and Gordon Birkett for their assistance with this web page.

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