Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), Tuesday 12 March 1946, page 2


AIR LINER HIT WATER AT A GREAT SPEED

Seven Bodies

Recovered

HOBART, Monday.

Conditions of seven bodies washed ashore early to-day from the A.N.A. DC 3 airliner, which crashed last night at the Seven Mile Beach, 11 miles from Hobart, makes identifica-tion almost impossible.

Those identified are Mrs. Val May Ringrose, of Melbourne; Miss Joan Ogilvie, of Hobart; Miss Yula Ida Smith, of Glenorchy; Mrs. D. Mc-Donald, of Wynyard Street, Sydney; and Mr. Cyril Schaedel, of St. Kilda.

Mr. Schaedel had acted as secre-tary of the Mentone Race Club for three years and had postponed his re-turn flight to Melbourne so that he could attend the Hobart Cup.

It was Australia's worst air crash.

The only body so far identified is that of the Chief Pilot, Captain T. Spence.

Reports stated that bodies were terribly injured, indicating the air-liner hit the water at a great speed.

Wreckage washed up on the beach include wallets containing bank notes, petrol ration tickets, personal pap-ers, tennis racquets and brief cases.

An R.A.N. "minesweeper sent from Hobart to aid the search has been forced to return to port by heavy weather. Smaller vessels are also handicapped by the weather.

Among the bodies recovered were those of Mrs. V. I. Smith, of Glen-orchy, and Miss J. Ogilvie, of Ho-

bart.

About 10 minutes before the crash occurred, the plane was observed by J. H. Wilson flying at tree-top height and then seemed to dive very fast in-to the sea about 200 yards from the

shore.

The Prime Minister (Mr. Chifley) issued condolences on behalf of the Commonwealth Government to rela-tives of the passengers and crew lost

in the disaster.

Australia's previous greatest air-liner disaster was in 1938, when the Kyeema struck Mt. Dandenong (Vic.) killing l8 on board.

Investigations Ordered

MELBOURNE, Monday.

The managing-director of A.N.A. (Captain Holyman) explained that the liner was a converted C47 trans-port plane which had been purchased from the U.S. Army Air Force and had been in service about 12 months.

A plane with experts flew from Melbourne to-day to conduct investi-gations.

It was stated that this was the first major Douglas crash since 1938.

In the seven years Douglas planes had flown more than 49 million miles and had carried about a million pas- sengers without injury.

The Minister for Civil Aircraft (Mr. Drakeford) announced that four de-partmental experts will make an in-

vestigation and submit a report and on receipt of the latter consideration will be given (to the appointment of a court of inquiry.