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.