1942 Qantas Short Empire shootdown

1942 aviation accident

1942 Qantas Short Empire shootdown
Accident
VH-ABB, a Qantas Short Empire similar to the aircraft involved.
Date	30 January 1942
Summary	Shootdown
Site	West Timor, Dutch East Indies
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Short Empire S.23
Operator	Qantas
Registration	G-AEUH
Flight origin	El Tari International Airport
Destination	Darwin International Airport
Occupants	18
Fatalities	13
Survivors	5

The 1942 Qantas Short Empire shoot-down was an incident that occurred in the early days of the Pacific War during World War II. A Short Empire flying boat airliner, Corio, operated by Qantas was shot down by Japanese aircraft off the coast of West Timor, Dutch East Indies, on 30 January 1942, killing 13 of the occupants.

Aircraft history

Corio
General information
Type	Short Empire S.23
Manufacturer	Short Brothers
Owners	Qantas Imperial Airways
Registration	G-AEUH
History
In service	1938–1942
Fate	Shot down

Corio, named after Corio, Victoria, was built as an S.23 Empire by Short Brothers and entered service with Qantas in October 1938 registered as VH-ABD then was sold to Imperial Airways in September 1939. The airliner, after being re-registered in the UK as G-AEUH, was then leased back to Qantas.

Air attack

On 30 January 1942, G-AEUH, captained by A. A. (Aub) Koch, left Darwin at dawn, for Kupang, West Timor, en route to Surabaya, where it was to pick up refugees from the Japanese invasion of Java and transport them to Australia.

When it was 13 nmi (24 km) from West Timor, travelling at a height of 400 ft (120 m), Corio was fired on by seven Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters.

Koch immediately increased the speed of the aircraft and dived it towards the coast, attempting to evade the attack; the aircraft reached its maximum speed – possibly 200 miles per hour (320 km/h) – and flew a zig-zagging course, so low that the airliner's wing floats were bouncing off the sea. Nevertheless, the Zero pilots soon achieved numerous hits, perforating the fuselage and killing some passengers. Following a sudden loss of power when two engines caught fire, Corio hit the sea at high speed, nose first, 3 nmi (5.6 km) from the mouth of the Noelmini River; the impact breaking the fuselage in half.

Out of a total of 18 passengers and crew, 13 were killed in the attack. Koch, wounded in an arm and leg, was thrown out of the wreckage by the impact. However, he managed to swim ashore, a feat which took him three hours. Koch and the other survivors were later rescued by a Dornier Do 24 flying boat of the Royal Netherlands Navy. Three passengers and two crew were saved.

Koch later survived another attack by Japanese aircraft and the crash of another Empire flying boat. On 19 February 1942, while he was recuperating in Darwin Hospital, the town experienced two major air raids. On 22 April 1943, Koch was piloting Camilla, another Qantas Short Empire, on a flight from Australia to New Guinea, when it crashed in the sea off Port Moresby in bad weather.

References

Notes

^ Wynnum B. Graham (2001), Empire C Class Flying Boats (PDF), adf-serials.com, p. 1, retrieved 11 July 2010
^ Cassidy 2004, p. 164.
^ Gunn 1987, p. 44.
"13 Killed in Air Crash: Enemy Attack on Flying-boat", The Sydney Morning Herald, National Library of Australia, Australian Newspapers, p. 9, 4 February 1942, retrieved 11 July 2010
Wire service, "Five of 18 Survive Jap Attack on Plane", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Wednesday 4 February 1942, Volume 48, page 2.
Gunn 1987, p. 51.

Bibliography

Cassidy, Brian. Flying Empires: Short ‘C’ class Empire flying boats. Bath UK: Queens Parade Press, 2004. Access date: 11 July 2010.
Gunn, John. Challenging Horizons: Qantas 1939–1954, St Lucia Qld: University of Queensland Press, 1987

v t e Qantas
Main airline	Accidents Aircraft names History 2011 industrial disputes Fleet Longreach Hangar Museum Routes Flights 7 & 8 Kangaroo Route Southern Cross Route Wallaby Route
Wholly owned subsidiaries	QantasLink Eastern Australia Airlines National Jet Systems Sunstate Airlines Network Aviation Express Freighters Australia Jetstar Routes
Partly owned airlines	Alliance Airlines (20%) Fiji Airways (46%) Jetstar Asia (including Valuair & Orange Star) (49%) Jetstar Japan (33%)
Affiliate airlines	Airnorth
Defunct airlines	Australian Airlines (formerly TAA) Australia Asia Airlines Australian Airlines Impulse Airlines Jetconnect Jetstar Hong Kong (33%) Qantas New Zealand (franchise) TEAL (23%)
Other services	Australian airExpress Qantas Freight Qantas Defence Services QIK Qudos Bank TripADeal
Former subsidiaries	Jetstar Pacific (30%) StarTrack (50%) Wentworth Hotel
Miscellaneous	Qantas Frequent Flyer Qantas House Qantas The Australian Way

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in 1942 (1942)
Jan 16 TWA Flight 3Jan 30 Qantas Short Empire shootdownMar 3 KNILM Douglas DC-3 shootdownMay 4 Kufra tragedyJun 7 Herefordshire TRE Halifax crashAug 16 L-8 "Ghost Blimp" incidentAug 25 Dunbeath air crashOct 18 Ruislip Wellington accidentOct 23 American Airlines Flight 28Nov 17 Aeroflot Li-2 Krasnoyarsk crashDec 2 Little EvaDec 14 Aeroflot Tupolev ANT-20bis crash
1941 ◄ ► 1943

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in Indonesia before 2000
1940s	Qantas Short Empire shootdown (January 1942)* RAAF Douglas C-47 disappearance (December 1945)* Yogyakarta Dakota incident (July 1947)*
1950s	Air India Flight 300 (April 1955) KLM Flight 844 (July 1957)*
1960s	Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 424 (January 1961) Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 542 (February 1961) Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 708 (February 1967)
1970s	Merpati Nusantara Airlines Vickers Viscount crash (November 1971) Pan Am Flight 812 (April 1974) Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 150 (September 1975) Garuda Fokker F28 crash (July 1979)
1980s	Garuda Indonesian Airways Flight 206 (March 1981) Garuda Fokker F28 crash (March 1982) British Airways Flight 009 (June 1982) Garuda Indonesia Flight 035 (April 1987)
1990s	Jakarta Indonesian Air Force C-130 crash (October 1991) Mandala Airlines Flight 660 (July 1992) Merpati Nusantara Airlines Flight 5601 (October 1992) Merpati Nusantara Airlines Flight 724 (July 1993) Dirgantara Air Service Flight 5940 (December 1996) Merpati Nusantara Airlines Flight 106 (April 1997) Sempati Air Flight 304 (July 1997) Garuda Indonesia Flight 152 (September 1997) SilkAir Flight 185 (December 1997)
"*" denotes an incident that took place in either the Dutch East Indies or Netherlands New Guinea 1940–1999 ► 2000–2009

Categories:

Misplaced Pages