AN AMERICAN DOUGLAS TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT
CRASHED AT MASCOT AIRFIELD, SYDNEY
ON 13 APRIL 1945

On 13 April 1945, an American Douglas transport aircraft crashed at Mascot Airfield in Sydney, New South Wales, instantly killing the flight engineer. The pilot (or Wireless operator) was trapped in the wreckage for hours before he was rescued and taken to hospital in a critical condition. The aircraft caught fire shortly after the crash but luckily for the pilot it was extinguished before it reached the cockpit. There were seven other personnel on the aircraft.

The aircraft overshot the runway and hit an embankment at the outer fringe of the airfield. The undercarriage collapsed and the port propeller tore a hole three feet wide in the fuselage. A propeller blade hit the flight engineer in the skull, killing him instantly. It missed the pilot by a few inches.

An eye witness saw the aircraft circle after it took off and it then circled back again to land. It seemed to be coming in too high causing it to overshoot hitting an embankment. The pilot told the witness that his brakes failed to grip properly.

NOTE:- I could find no entry in the records for the US Military Cemetery at Rookwood for anyone dying on 13 April 1945.

There is a discrepancy in the details in the two articles below. One says the pilot was killed and the co-pilot escaped after being trapped for a few hours and no others on the aircraft. The other article says the Flight Engineer was killed and there were eight others on board. I've assumed they were the same incident. Perhaps there were two crashes. Does anyone know?

A third article suggests there were seven on board, not nine, the Engineer was killed, and the Wireless Operator was extricated from the wreck suffering from shock. The other five passengers were uninjured.

REFERENCES

"Mascot Plane Crash", The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 14 April 1945

"Man Killed in Plane Crash", The Daily Telegraph, 14 April 1945

"One Killed - One Injured", National Advocate, Bathurst, 14 April 1945

Can anyone help me with more information on this crash?

"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products

This page first produced 15 June 2018

This page last updated 27 February 2020