ANA/ADAT Douglas C-49/VH-CXD Transport Wreckage

Higgins Advanced Operational Base (AOB)/Bamaga-Injinoo Airport

This C-49 transport aircraft crashed and caught fire while coming in to land in the early morning of 5 May 1945 on a flight from Brisbane. The pilot, an Australian National Airways employee, the RAAF crew of three and two passengers all died in the crash. The tail section, wings and engines of the wrecked aircraft have been arranged within a fenced area near the junction of the Peninsula Development Road and the Bamaga airport road.

Place information

Location

Bamaga Airfield (Higgins Field)

Bamaga, QLD 4876

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Place type

Aircraft wreck

History

The aircraft began its operational life as a Dutch commercial passenger airliner owned by KLM and in June 1940 was transferred to KNILM in the Netherlands East Indies. The DC-3 was one of the last KNILM aircraft to escape to Australia ahead of the rapid Japanese advance through the Indonesian archipelago. Taking off from Samarinda on the island of Borneo on 24 January 1942 it survived an attack by Japanese Zero fighters which left six people on board injured.

The aircraft was acquired after its arrival in Australia for use by the newly-formed Allied Directorate of Air Transport (ADAT). It was...

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