VH-USE  de Havilland D.H.86A                (c/n   2309)

                                    

                                        First registered in January 1935 to Qantas Empire Airways as "R.M.A. Sydney".   VH-USE
                                        crashed minutes after taking off from Archerfield Airport, Brisbane for a flight to Darwin on
                                        20 February 1942..  This, just one day after a savage Japanese air attack on that city.  The
                                        aircraft apparently plunged out of control into the slopes of Mt. Petrie (today a suburb of
                                        Brisbane).  Although the actual cause of the crash was inconclusive, structural failure of some
                                        kind was suspected.   The above image is from the Civil Aviation Historical Society collection,
                                        courtesy of Phil Vabre.