Crash-landing on lakeside woodland near Albion Park, NSW, 1961.

📷: Crash-landing on lakeside woodland near Albion Park, NSW, 1961.

On 18 December 1961, a Bristol 170 Freighter belonging to Pacific Aviation crash-landed on lakeside woodland near Albion Park, NSW. The newspapers said engine failure, but the crash investigation said they were practicing engine failure recovery, but the propeller on the stopped engine would not feather and the aircraft couldn’t maintain altitude. The crew of three were uninjured, but the single passenger suffered a broken leg. It was school holidays, so I was home and heard the huge noise as it came down and ripped through the trees. My friends and I got there pretty quickly – just after the crew had been taken away, but before the police had fenced it off completely (I’m the kid in shorts standing on the broken wing in the full length shot of the fuselage). We were delighted to find that the fuselage was full of (destroyed) boxes of Kelloggs Corn Flakes. At that time, Kelloggs used to put plastic toys in the packets – they were locomotives and rolling stock that you could collect. After that afternoon, we had the best plastic train collections on the South Coast. Inside the fuselage I souvenired this small electrical fitting. Years later I was relieved to see that there was no mention of a critical missing capacitor in the crash investigation report.

Submitted by Neil Urwin