6 May 1942 - Crash of a Catalina in the Coral Sea

6 MAY 1942
CRASH OF A CATALINA,
IN THE CORAL SEA
OFF THE QUEENSLAND COAST

catalina01.jpg (9850 bytes)
Catalina

RAAF Catalina A24-20, (RCAF 9735) crashed into the Coral Sea on 6 May 1942. This was around the time of the Battle of the Coral Sea. This aircraft had been delivered in March 1942.

While nothing to do with the above crash, I thought the following may be of interest!!

SUNDAY MAIL
8 December 1996

Catalina's sea grave
The bodies of one of the world's most famous aircraft have been found in murky graves off Townsville's coast.

Now one of the few remaining Catalinas is set to be made into a war memorial for the pilots who flew them.

Known as the great flying boats, the craft were used to pluck 2,500 airmen from the Indian Ocean during World War II.

They could fly for 32 hours non-stop.

Ivan Peirce piloted Catalinas in the Double Sunrise Service from Perth to Ceylon - a service so named because they saw two sunrises on their non-stop 30-hour flight.

He said the planes, on loan from the US, were dumped after the war when the government was told to either buy or destroy them.

A group of former World War II pilots from Western Australia found the few in existence were either museum pieces or privately owned. The Townsville retrieval operation may have been aborted if not for the grand-daughter of one of the pilots.

Through the Internet, she received an anonymous tip-off.

No one yet has seen the planes, believed to be off Palm Island and Townsville, but Mrs. Peirce believes they will be salvageable.

Navy divers are expected to photograph the wrecks in January.