Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Thursday 9 August 1951, page 1


T.A.A. LOSES FIRST

TWO KILLED

From FRANK DOHERTY in Hobart

A TRANS-AUSTRALIA Airlines DC3

freight plane crashed into the sea at Cambridge, near Hobart, shortly after 9 o'clock last night, killing the pilot and co-pilot.

It was the first fatal T.A.A. crash since the airline began operating in 1946.

The dead are:-

Captain J. M. Haslope, 59 Sudan st., West Coburg. First Officer T. R. Bennetts, 19 Toora st., Ivanhoe.

The plane, bound for Melbourne, crashed soon after taking off from Cambridge airport,

eight miles from Hobart.

The cause of the accident is not yet known, but eye-witnesses say the plane was just about airborne when it

crashed.

In March, 1946, an Australian National Airways D.C.3 took off

from Cambridge and crashed into the sea near Seven Mile Beach.

Its 21 passengers and crew of four were killed.

The T.A.A. freighter was carrying a cargo of zinc when it crashed in shallow water half a mile north-east of the airfield boundary.

The aircraft was exten-sively damaged, and both

crew members were killed in-stantly.

A special T.A.A. aircraft left Melbourne last night for Hobart, carrying Mr. John Chapman, T.A.A. operations manager, engineers, and technical experts to investi-gate the accident.

Eye-witnesses said that the aircraft had just become * Continued on Back Page

CRASH

. Continued from Page 1 airborne when it dropped one wing and crashed into about three or four feet of water 100 yards offshore.

It crashed into an area known as Pittwater, close to the spot where the A.N. A. plane crashed five years

ago.

Other eye-witnesses said the plane seemed to go straight into the water.

They said the undercarri-age struck the water, the plane bounced, one wing came off, and the plane went into the water again.

A party of rescuers, in-cluding a doctor, waded from the shore to the aircraft and recovered the bodies of the two men.

The dead men were still wearing their safety straps.

Salvaging will begin this morning.