VP-KEA  de Havilland D.H.89a Dragon Rapide              (c/n 6890)

                             

                                 A former RAF Dominie (NR814) this Rapide was civilianized in September 1945 as
                                 PH-RAA     It was sold in May 1947 to East African Airways, from whom this shot
                                 was obtained.  VP-KEA crashed and burned on 24 January, 1954 whilst taking off
                                 from a remote dirt strip at Butiaba in Uganda on the eastern shores of Lake Albert. 
                                 The passengers were Ernest Hemming way and his wife Mary who were being
                                 rescued having just succumbed to a previous crash in their Cessna 180!   Mercifully
                                 the pilot and passengers of the Rapide escaped, albeit with fairly severe injuries.