FATAL AIR CRASH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27027, 11 March 1949, Page 5

FATAL AIR CRASH

PASSENGER PLANE IN QUEENSLAND RESCUE EFFORTS FAIL NZP A—Copyright Rec. 9 p.m. BRISBANE, Mar. 10. When a Lockheed Lodestar airliner crashed and burst into flames after taking off from Bilinga airstrip, near Coolangatta to-day, 21 people, including six women and two young children, were burned to death. The police report that all bodies are unrecognisable and that the heat from the flames was so intense that all attempts at rescue were unsuccessful. The aircraft was owned by Truth and Sportsman, Limited, and was under charter to Queensland Airlines, Limited, who used it on a regular passenger service between Coff's Harbour and Brisbane. It left Coff’s Harbour this morning and made landings at Casino and Bilinga, where four passengers left the plane. The plane took off normally, after which observers say it gained an altitude of 100 feet and then turned, apparently in an attempt to reland. It then seemed to stall and crashed with its wheels up into a swamp just off the airstrip and burst into flames immediately. Within a few seconds the fuselage was alight from end to end and great sheets of flame enveloped the motors and wings. The plane is the fifth airliner to crash or force land in Australia in the past six months with a total death roll of 36.