VH-GVH de
Havilland D.H.114
Heron
(c/n 14033)
In 1958 Southern Airways found
itself in need of additional capacity on its intra-Victorian
routes and acquired
two Herons from New Zealand. The above machine had originally been
delivered to NZNAC
as ZK-BBO, and re-registered ZK-BEQ after they sold it off. After
Ansett-ANA took over
Southern's route structure, VH-GVH was sold to Fiji Airways as
VQ-FAL.
It crashed and was destroyed making an emergency landing at Ura
airstrip on
Travenni Island in
1965. The photo below, from the Civil Aviation
Historical Society of
South
Australia collection, shows it in the hangar at Essendon along with
-GVI being readied
for service in Fiji.