Bakers Creek air crash

Infobox Airliner accident
name=USAAF B-17C 40-2072
Date=14 June 1943
Type=Crashed on take-off
Site=Bakers Creek, Queensland
Fatalities=40
Injuries=1
Aircraft Type=B-17 Flying Fortress
Operator=United States Army Air Forces
Tail Number="40-2072"
Passengers=35
Crew=6The Bakers Creek air crash was an aviation disaster which occurred on 14 June 1943, when a USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft crashed shortly after take-off at Bakers Creek, Queensland approximately convert|8|km|mi south of Mackay, killing 40 of the 41 military service personnel on board. One person on board survived. [cite web|url=http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/ozcrashes/qld46.htm|title=Crash of a B-17C Flying Fortress at Bakers Creek Near Mackay, Qld on 14 June 1943|author=Peter Dunn] The crash is Australia's worst aviation disaster by death toll and was the worst accident involving a transport aircraft in the south-western Pacific during World War II.cite web|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/01/AR2008010101410.html?sub=AR|title=Searching for a Home for a World War II Memorial|work=Washington Post|date=January 3, 2008|accessdate=2008-06-13]

The aircraft, a Boeing B-17C, serial/tail number 40-2072, known as "Miss Every Morning Fixin" took off from Mackay Airfield [cite web|url=http://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/b-17/40-2072.html|title=B-17C "Pamela / Miss E.M.F." Serial Number 40-2072|work=pacificwrecks.com|accessdate=2008-06-19] just before dawn at about 6 am in foggy conditions, headed for Port Moresby. Soon after, it made a low altitude turn and a few minutes later, crashed. The cause of the crash remains a mystery.

The six crew and 35 passengers were returning to New Guinea after an R&R break. The aircraft was part of the United States Fifth Air Force and was operated by the 46th Troop Carrier Squadron, part of the 317th Troop Carrier Group. It had formerly been one of the B-17s sent to the Philippines in the autumn of 1941 with the 19th Bomb Group and had been converted into a transport after suffering heavy battle damage in a mission on 25 December 1941.

The survivor was Foye Kenneth Roberts who passed away at Wichita Falls, Texas on 4 February 2004.

Due to wartime censorship, nothing of the incident was reported in the media. "The Daily Mercury", Mackay's newspaper, reported the following day that a visiting American serviceman had been injured, as well as an editorial expressing the sentiments of locals who knew what had happened. Nothing more appeared in the local media until after the war had ended, in February 1946. [cite web|url=http://www.geocities.com/valiant1968/MissEMF/B17C-402072-MissEMF.htm|title=the Bakers Creek Memorial to WWII American GIs|author=Col Benson. Mackay, Queensland] Victims' relatives received War Department telegrams which said little more than the serviceman had been killed in an air crash in the south west Pacific.

Australia's second worst aviation disaster, the 1960 TAA Fokker Friendship disaster, coincidentally also occurred at Mackay.

Memorials

A memorial was constructed in Bakers Creek in 1981 consisting of two brick columns aligned northwards on which are mounted flag poles and two brass plaques facing eastwards. Between the columns is a large aircraft propeller of a type fitted to Douglas C-47 / DC-3 / Dakota airplanes that was supplied by the Royal Australian Air Force. The plaques describe the crash and list the men known to have perished as well as the sole survivor. [cite web|url=http://www.skp.com.au/memorials2/pages/40106.htm|title=Bakers Creek Air Crash Memorial|date=December 2003|accessdate=2008-06-14]

Another memorial at the rear of the Australian embassy in Washington D.C. commemorates the accident. Negotiations for its relocation to Arlington National Cemetery are underway and it is expected that the move will be completed during June 2008.cite web| last=Hefling | first=Kimberly | title="Crash Memorial Without Permanent Home" | work=| publisher="The Washington Post"| date=2007-09-25 | url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/25/AR2007092500152.html | accessdate=2008-06-11]

ee also

* List of disasters in Australia by death toll

References

External links

* http://aeroweb.brooklyn.cuny.edu/specs/boeing/b-17c.htm
* [http://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/b-17/40-2072.html B-17C #40-2072 details]
* [http://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/b-17/40-2072/crew-list.html Crew List and burial details]

Further reading

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