VH-BPE  Douglas DC-6                                  (c/n  43125)

                            

                                British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines, from whom I acquired to above photo, was formed in
                                1948 by the governments of Australia (50%), New Zealand (30%) and the UK (20%) to pursue
                                and continue trans-Pacific flights immediately after WW II.   The original route was Sydney-
                                Auckland-Fiji-Hawaii-San Francisco-Vancouver, extended on the front end to Melbourne in
                                1953.  It was dissolved when Qantas started trans-Pacific routes in 1954.  The airline owned
                                four DC-6s which were originally slated to go to SAS, but were diverted instead to BCPA. 
                                The woeful shot of mine (below) was taken at Mascot in 1952.  On 29 Oct 1953 this aircraft
                                was flying the last leg of a Sydney-San Francisco flight when it crashed in mountainous terrain
                                on approach to San Francisco airport.   Pilot error was given as the cause. Bits and pieces of
                                the wreckage are still there.   It lies in extremely rough terrain and difficult to access, although
                                hardy hikers/aircraft archeologists have done so over the years.