Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Friday 30 June 1950, page 3


Experts search for cause of crash

ENGINE ON FIRE IS

AMANA THEORY

Inquiries continue

PRELIMINARY investigations have dis-

closed that the Amana tragedy was probably caused by one of the A.N.A. Sky-master's engines catching fire.

Expert investigators believe that when they have finished their inquiries they will have an almost complete explanation of why the aircraft

crashed.

Evidence indicates that the Skymaster was under control until the crash oc-

curred.

Investigators believe that the pilot brought the plane down in a desperate search for an emergency landing

ground.

Passenger aircraft are equipped with automatic fire extinguishers. Experts are still trying to find out what happened to the automatic extinguishers on the motor which caught fire.

They believe that no radio call was sent out because the crew were fully occupied in meeting the emergency caused by the fire.

Automatic pilot

Normally, the loss of one en-gine would cut the Skymaster's speed from about 240 to 230 m.p.h. and would not be at all dangerous.

Investigators may not finish their inquiries for another nine or ten days; but they have already discarded theories that the automatic pilot caused the crash, or that fire broke out in the cockpit before the accident.

Captain E. C. Johnston, Deputy Dnector-General of Civil Avia tion, said last night:

"Our accident investigators are still on the job. When they have finished, they will report to the Minister. The public inquiry may not be held for some weeks

yet."

Back to Perth

Captain I. Holyman, A.N.A.'s managing director, said last night: "Two of our investigators, Captain Taylor, flight super-intendent, and Mr. D. S. Stewart, technical superintendent, are returning to Perth immediately to continue inquiries."

Captain Holyman confirmed that preliminary inquiries in-

dicated that there was no fire in the cockpit before the crash, and that the automatic pilot had not

caused the accident.

An A.N.A. offiial said yesterday

that since the Skymaster service was begun in 1946 they had had 113,000 flying hours, and had

flown 22,600,000 miles. The Sky-masters had flown 590,000 more passengers than the population of

Greater Melbourne.