VH-BWE (1) DHC-1
Chipmunk
(c/n C1/0072)
Oh, wot a wicked
shame........The official accident report reads "Struck a pole on
landing at Parafield
on 9 January
1960". Looks like the pole did a right good job on
it, unless a chop up operation had
begun by the time that Geoff Goodall took this shot
some two years later. This aircraft was ex RAF
WB630 and had originally been
civilianized as EI-AJD. It was acquired by the RACSA as a
replace-
ment for VH-BWD (the second)
which had burned after a crash at Sanderston, SA in July
1958.
Upon
arriving in January 1959
it was assigned VH-BWD (the third). DCA said, however, that
an
aircraft should not be given the same rego as a
machine which had crashed, and it was consequently
re-registered
VH-BWE. If some sort
of superstition prompted that policy, clearly it did not work!