On the evening of 30 November 1961, Ansett-ANA Flight 325, a service from
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
to
Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
, Australia, operated by a
Vickers Viscount
The Vickers Viscount is a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs. A design requirement from the Brabazon Committee, it entered service in 1953 and was the first turboprop-powered airliner.
The Visc ...
propliner, broke up in mid-air and crashed shortly after takeoff, when it encountered a severe
thunderstorm
A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are someti ...
. All 15 people on board were killed.
Radio contact was lost about 9 minutes after takeoff, but no reports of a crash were initially received by the authorities. The next day, wreckage and a
fuel slick were found on the surface of
Botany Bay
Botany Bay (Dharawal: ''Kamay''), an open oceanic embayment, is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point and the Cook ...
, Sydney. The aircraft had been drawn into a thunderstorm and subjected to extreme turbulence. It had broken up and crashed into Botany Bay less than from where it took off.
[The Loss of Viscount VH-TVC in Botany Bay]
Retrieved 9 September 2011[Vickers Viscount Network]
Retrieved 9 September 2011[Aviation Safety Network]
Retrieved 9 September 2011
The loss of Flight 325 was the first fatal accident suffered by Ansett since commencement of operations as
Ansett Airways Pty Ltd in 1935.
The flight
Ansett-ANA Flight 325, a Vickers Viscount
registered VH-TVC "
John Oxley
John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley (1784 – 25 May 1828)
was an explorer and surveyor of Australia in the early period of British colonisation. He served as Surveyor General of New South Wales and is perhaps best known for his two exp ...
", took off from
Sydney airport
Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (colloquially Mascot Airport, Kingsford Smith Airport, or Sydney Airport; ; ) is an international airport in Sydney, Australia, located 8 km (5 mi) south of the Sydney central business district, in the ...
on
runway 07 at 7:17 pm local time for a scheduled passenger flight to Canberra. The aircraft was being leased from Trans-Australia Airlines in exchange for a DC-6B aircraft. On board were the pilot, Stan Lindsay; co-pilot, Ben Costello; two
air hostesses, Aileen Keldie and Elizabeth Hardy; and eleven passengers.
[Aussieairliners]
Retrieved 9 September 2011
Around the time of takeoff there was a severe thunderstorm with very heavy rain to the south of the airport and another to the north. Above Sydney airport there was cloud at about but no thunderstorm activity. Flight 325 was observed to enter cloud shortly after take off. Five other aircraft took off while this meteorological
Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...
situation existed.[
Flight 325 was directed to take off and continue heading east towards the ]Tasman Sea
The Tasman Sea (Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abe ...
until reaching an altitude
Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...
of , turn around and fly west to a radio navigation aid
Radio navigation or radionavigation is the application of radio frequencies to determine a position of an object on the Earth, either the vessel or an obstruction. Like radiolocation, it is a type of radiodetermination.
The basic principles a ...
west of the airport and then turn south-west for Canberra. The crew were to ensure they passed over the airport no lower than .[
Five minutes after takeoff the crew advised they had reached . About 3½ minutes later, Sydney ]air traffic control
Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airs ...
called Flight 325 with a routine request for information but received no reply. No further radio communication was received from Flight 325 so when it did not arrive at Canberra airport
Canberra Airport is an international airport situated in the District of Majura, Australian Capital Territory serving Australia's capital city, Canberra, as well as the nearby city of Queanbeyan and regional areas of the Australian Capital Te ...
authorities knew it had suffered an accident. An air search was planned to commence at dawn.[
Approximately 9 minutes after takeoff the outer section of the ]right
Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of Liberty, freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convent ...
wing had been torn away and the aircraft had crashed into Botany Bay.[ The rain, thunder and lightning associated with the thunderstorm over Botany Bay had been so intense that no-one saw the aircraft or observed anything crash into the water. Accident Investigator Frank Yeend wrote "The weather was so bad that this aircraft crashed in the middle of a major city without anybody having seen it or heard anything that would give cause to alarm."][
]
Search and recovery
When it became clear Flight 325 was not responding to radio calls and the aircraft could not be seen on the radar screen in the control tower the Alert Phase of search and rescue procedures was initiated. The Police
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...
, RAAF
"Through Adversity to the Stars"
, colours =
, colours_label =
, march =
, mascot =
, anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...
, Royal Australian Navy
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...
and Volunteer Coastal Patrol
Responsibilities for traditional coast guard duties in Australia are distributed across various federal, state and community agencies. The de facto coast guard of Australia is the Maritime Border Command, a joint command of the Australian Defen ...
were notified. A message was broadcast on the radio frequency used by coastal shipping. The Department of Civil Aviation air-sea rescue launch based on Botany Bay made a circuit of the Bay's foreshores. When Flight 325 failed to arrive at its destination, search and rescue procedures were elevated to the Distress Phase. In the hours after loss of contact with Flight 325 no report was received of an aircraft accident so there was general foreboding that it had crashed into the Tasman Sea. At first light the next morning two Douglas DC-3
The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner
manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II.
It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper version ...
aircraft began searching the sea to the east of Sydney. A helicopter and several motor launches also began searching Botany Bay.[
Soon after sunrise the crew of the helicopter reported an item floating on Botany Bay.]["Airliner Split Open In Crash"]
''The Canberra Times'' – 2 December 1961, p.1 (National Library of Australia) Retrieved 26 December 2013 The crew of the air-sea rescue launch investigated the sighting and retrieved a piece of damaged upholstery. Airline staff confirmed the upholstery was from a Vickers Viscount pilot's seat. Searchers on the beach in the north-east of Botany Bay, near Bunnerong Power Station
Bunnerong Power Station was a coal-fired power station in the south-eastern Sydney suburb of Matraville, New South Wales, Australia that was decommissioned by 1975 and subsequently demolished. When the last generating units were commissioned, ...
, found some cabin furnishings and human remains. At the south of the Bay the outer section of the right wing, still showing registration VH-TVC, was found protruding above the surface of shallow water near Kurnell
Kurnell is a suburb in Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire along the east coast. Cronulla and Woolooware are the only adj ...
. Later in the day Police and Navy divers investigated a large fuel slick in the centre of Botany Bay and discovered the scattered wreckage of VH-TVC in of water, north of the outer section of the right wing. The aircraft had crashed south-east of Sydney airport.[
The Royal Australian Navy sent a team of ]clearance divers
A clearance diver was originally a specialist naval diver who used explosives underwater to remove obstructions to make harbours and shipping channels safe to navigate, but the term "clearance diver" was later used to include other naval und ...
and ''HMAS Kimbla'', a boom defence vessel
A net laying ship, also known as a net layer, net tender, gate ship or boom defence vessel was a type of naval auxiliary ship.
A net layer's primary function was to lay and maintain steel anti-torpedo or anti-submarine nets. Nets could be laid ...
, to Botany Bay and brought the main wreckage of VH-TVC to the surface. After a week ''Kimbla'' was replaced by ''HMAS Walrus'', a smaller workboat from which the Navy divers worked for many weeks, locating and recovering many smaller pieces of wreckage.["Vital Plane Parts Found"]
''The Canberra Times'' – 18 January 1962, p.3 (National Library of Australia) Retrieved 26 December 2013
The right tailplane
A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplane ...
was missing from the main wreckage. Navy divers eventually found the missing parts of the tailplane close to where the outer section of the right wing was found, indicating the right tailplane was also torn from the aircraft prior to its impact with the water.
Numerous small items, including many from the number 4 engine nacelle
A nacelle ( ) is a "streamlined body, sized according to what it contains", such as an engine, fuel, or equipment on an aircraft. When attached by a pylon entirely outside the airframe, it is sometimes called a pod, in which case it is attached ...
, were found on Kurnell peninsula, south of the outer section of the right wing. The wreckage trail was aligned approximately north-south with the main wreckage at the north in Botany Bay; and the smaller, lighter items at the south on Kurnell peninsula.[
The aircraft was not equipped with a ]flight data recorder
A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...
or cockpit voice recorder
A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...
so it was important that as much as possible of the wreckage should be recovered and examined.[ The recovery effort continued for 3 months.
The top section of the ]rudder
A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...
was not found during the recovery of the wreckage. Twelve years after the accident the missing section was found in shallow water in Botany Bay, near Kurnell Beach.[
]
Investigation
As pieces of wreckage from VH-TVC were progressively recovered from Botany Bay they were laid out in a hangar at Sydney airport to allow investigators to search for the cause of the accident. The right tailplane and the outer section of the right wing had received almost no damage on impact with the water but the main wreckage in Botany Bay showed extensive disintegration, suggesting a very high speed of impact.[ No evidence was found of any fault or mechanical failure that might have existed prior to the accident.][
It soon became clear that the ]spar
SPAR, originally DESPAR, styled as DE SPAR, is a Dutch multinational that provides branding, supplies and support services for independently owned and operated food retail stores. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1932, by Adriaan van Well, ...
in the right wing had broken and the outer section of the wing had been torn away by the airstream. The lower boom (or lower flange
A flange is a protruded ridge, lip or rim (wheel), rim, either external or internal, that serves to increase shear strength, strength (as the flange of an iron beam (structure), beam such as an I-beam or a T-beam); for easy attachment/transfer of ...
) in the wing spar had failed in upward bending at station 323 due to extreme overload. The wing had been overloaded while the aircraft was flying at very high speed, probably in excess of the maximum safe speed of indicated airspeed
Indicated airspeed (IAS) is the airspeed of an aircraft as measured by its pitot-static system and displayed by the airspeed indicator (ASI). This is the pilots' primary airspeed reference.
This value is not corrected for installation error, inst ...
.[ As an immediate consequence of the aircraft's gyrations during failure of the right wing, the right tailplane had also been subjected to excessive forces and had separated from the fuselage.]
Engineers assisting the accident investigation calculated that for the wing spar to fail in the way it did in VH-TVC would require the aircraft to be flying faster than its maximum speed of and, while being subjected to a severe recovery manoeuvre by the crew, to encounter a very strong gust, possibly as much as . At the time of the accident investigation, gusts up to had been measured inside thunderstorms by suitably equipped research aircraft.[ Investigators were aware of the crash of Capital Airlines Flight 75, a Vickers Viscount that crashed in Maryland, USA in May 1959 after encountering extreme turbulence associated with thunderstorms.]
All the wreckage lay in a trail aligned north-south. By making assumptions about the likely terminal velocities of key pieces of wreckage, accident investigators were able to determine the approximate location, height and speed of the aircraft at the time it broke up. They believed the outer section of the right wing was torn away when the aircraft was south of its intended flight path, heading in a northerly direction, and at a height between .[ They believed this occurred at a time when the aircraft should have been at about , heading west and passing over a radio navigation aid nine miles away. It was necessary for the investigation to find a rational explanation as to why the aircraft was so far from where it should have been.][
Accident investigators studied a scientific report titled ''The Thunderstorm'' published in the USA in 1949. This report proposed that where two thunderstorms were separated, edge to edge, by less than there was a likelihood of severe turbulence in the clear air between the two. The accident investigators believed it was likely that Flight 325, while flying west between two mature thunderstorms, encountered strong turbulence that caused the crew to lose control and the aircraft to lose a significant amount of height and enter the thunderstorm to the south of the airport. While flying north, possibly in an attempt to escape the thunderstorm, the crew encountered continuing strong turbulence that caused control to be lost again. The aircraft accelerated to its maximum safe speed or faster and while the crew were struggling to regain control the aircraft was suddenly subjected to extreme turbulence that caused the right wing and the right tailplane to fail.][
]
Board of Accident Inquiry
A Board of Accident Inquiry was appointed in 1962 to investigate all aspects of the accident to Flight 325.[ chairman of the board was Mr Justice Spicer of the ]Commonwealth Industrial Court
The Commonwealth Industrial Court, known as the Australian Industrial Court from 1973, was a specialist court to deal with industrial matters, principally the enforcement of Industrial award, awards and orders of the Commonwealth Conciliation an ...
. The Board first convened on 12 June 1962, sat for 24 days and closed on 27 July 1962.["Collapse of Wing In Storm Blamed"]
''The Canberra Times'' – 13 June 1962, p.1 (National Library of Australia) Retrieved 26 December 2013
Investigation of the accident concluded:
''The cause of the accident was the failure in flight of the starboard outer wing in upward bending due to tensile overloading of the lower spar boom at station 323, probably induced by a combination of manoeuvre and gust loading when the speed of the aircraft was in excess of 260 knots. The circumstances and available evidence carry a strong implication that the in-flight structural failure was preceded by a loss of control with a consequential increase in speed to at least 260 knots. The most probable explanation for the loss of control is that the aircraft entered an area of unexpected turbulence of such severity as to deprive the pilots of full recovery.''["Storm Cause Of Viscount Disaster"]
''The Canberra Times'' – 15 September 1962, p.1 (National Library of Australia) Retrieved 26 December 2013
The Inquiry gave a strong impetus for greater co-operation between the meteorological service and air traffic control; and for airline aircraft in Australia to be equipped with weather radar
Weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern weather radars are mostly puls ...
to give pilots of these aircraft the ability to avoid hazardous weather.[Airways Museum]
Retrieved 9 September 2011 All Australian airliners were required to be equipped with weather radar by 1 June 1963.Aileen Keldie – Air Hostess
Retrieved 9 September 2011
Aircraft
The aircraft was Vickers Viscount 720
__NOTOC__
Year 720 ( DCCXX) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 720 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...
, serial number 46. It was registered VH-TVC and first flew on 17 November 1954. It was delivered to Trans Australia Airlines
Trans Australia Airlines (TAA), renamed Australian Airlines in 1986, was one of the two major Australian domestic airlines between its inception in 1946 and its merger with Qantas in September 1992. As a result of the "COBRA" (or Common Brand ...
on 8 December 1954 and named ''John Oxley
John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley (1784 – 25 May 1828)
was an explorer and surveyor of Australia in the early period of British colonisation. He served as Surveyor General of New South Wales and is perhaps best known for his two exp ...
'' in honour of an early Australian explorer and surveyor.[Eastwood & Roach 1990, ''Turbo Prop Airliner Production List,'' p. 382]
VH-TVC was leased to Ansett-ANA on 7 March 1960 and operated with the passenger cabin configured for 48 passengers.[
The aircraft made 12,010 flights and flew for 16,946 hours.][
]
See also
* Ansett-ANA Flight 149 – Viscount accident in 1966
* MacRobertson Miller Airlines Flight 1750 – Viscount accident in 1968
*List of accidents and incidents involving the Vickers Viscount
As World War II came to a close the British government realised that it was going to have to drastically change its air manufacturing industry to avoid becoming dependent on American aircraft companies. To address this issue the Brabazon Committ ...
*List of disasters in Australia by death toll
This is a list of disasters in Australia by death toll.
100 or more deaths
50 to 99 deaths
20 to 49 deaths
Between 10 and 20
Gallery
Image:Port arthur outside.jpg, The Port Arthur massacre claimed 35 lives in 1996 when Martin Bryan ...
*List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
This list of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft includes notable events that have a corresponding Wikipedia article. Entries in this list involve passenger or cargo aircraft that are operating commercially and meet this list ...
*
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
* Fyshwick, Australia. pp. 200.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ansett-ANA Flight 325
Aviation accidents and incidents in New South Wales
Airliner accidents and incidents caused by in-flight structural failure
Airliner accidents and incidents caused by weather
Aviation accidents and incidents in 1961
Accidents and incidents involving the Vickers Viscount
Ansett Australia accidents and incidents
Disasters in Sydney
1961 in Australia
1961 meteorology
November 1961 events in Australia