25 May 1944 - Crash of two Vultee Vengeances at Mount Disappointment 6 miles north of Whittlesea, in Victoria

CRASH OF TWO VULTEE VENGEANCES
AT MOUNT DISAPPOINTMENT
6 MILES NORTH OF WHITTLESEA, VIC
ON 25 MAY 1944

vengeance.jpg (12400 bytes)
Vultee Vengeance

I visited this crash site and 3 others on 1 March 2000 with Les Lewis, and his friends Rob Pocock, and Ken "Roach" Brookes. In fact these were the first crash sites that I have ever visited. This was despite the fact that by that time I had already posted the details of 1,085 crashes of WW2 aircraft in Australia on my home pages. In fact I visited 4 crash sites in three and a half hours on that day in March. Quite an interesting day.

Les Lewis and myself trekked off down the 802 metre Mount Disappointment towards the crash site of two Vultee Vengeances (A27-49 and A27-92). As we went down the mountain we could clearly see the high rise buildings in the central business district of Melbourne.

The two Vultee Vengeances both slammed into the mountain in low cloud on 25 May 1944. Five RAAF personnel lost their lives at about 11:50 am on that tragic day. There was plenty of evidence of the remains of both these aircraft including a large radial engine. There were many large lumps of molten aluminium lying around the crash sites.

The following summary of these two crashes is from Les Lewis:-

Vultee Vengeance. A27-49 and A27-92.

Location: Six miles north of Whittlesea.

Unit: 1APU Bowen Detachment.

Date: 25^th may 1944.

Time: 1150 hrs. E.S.T.

Pilots:

A27-49. 419119 Pilot Officer R.L.Erskine. [aged 19 years from Box Hill Vic.]

A27-92. 426002 Flight Sergeant Hall R.J. [aged 20 years from Calen Qld.]

Crew:

A27-49. 419363 Flying Officer K.A.Wood. [aged 24 years from West Footscray Vic.]

A27-49. 41360 Sergeant West P. [aged 23 years from Christmas Hills Vic.]

A27-92. 51407 Corporal Falahey W.J. [aged 32 years from Elsternwick Vic.]

(Ref: Court of Inquiry papers. P/P 21 dated 27/5/1944 including PT81 and notes. )

All airmen were killed.

Nature of accident: "Non operational ferry flight. Whilst flying in formation at low altitude over mountains in mist and cloud, aircraft crashed into high ground and burnt."

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The aircraft were scheduled to depart Laverton airbase at 0830 on a scheduled non – operational ferry flight from No.1 APU (Aircraft Performance Unit.) Laverton to the No.1 APU detachment at Bowen Queensland with a scheduled stop at Mascot.

No reason is known for the delay that ensued, however it is known that at approximately 0830 hours, the air route forecast was collected by one of the pilots.

This information was based on a report and forecast at 0600 hrs.

At 1123 hrs. the aircraft departed Laverton on a course via Wagga NSW.

The weather had deteriorated through the morning and although a subsequent report had come in prior to departure, the pilots had not been advised.

At the time of departure, their chosen route to Wagga was closed.

Cloud on the mountain was reported at 1,500ft. and their instructions were to maintain a flight level of 1,000ft. above ground level.

In fact the weather conditions were such that the mountain was completely obscured, and witnesses gave varying estimates of height, all of which were below 1,000ft.

It is certain that the aircraft were in the parish for their track, however had they been flying on the true line, they would have over flown the area of Eden Park on a heading of 32 deg.

According to witnesses, they appeared to fly direct overhead of the Whittlesea village on a heading roughly due north. The path cut through the trees on the mountain indicates a similar line, and so it would seem that although they had tried to gain height, any attempt at a change in direction was not tried until the last minute.

Certainly if they had seen the terrain only seconds earlier, they would have cleared the spur and the ridge that lay beyond.