PK-AFV

PK-AFV, also known as "Pelikaan", was a Douglas DC-3 (Dakota) [Also widely, but erroneously, known by the US military designation C-47.] twin-propellor-engined airliner, operated by KLM from 1937 to 1942. On March 3, 1942, while on a flight from Bandung, Netherlands East Indies, to Broome, Australia, the plane was attacked by Japanese fighter planes; airreg|PK|AFV crash-landed on a beach near Broome. Four passengers were killed. Among its cargo were diamonds worth at the time an estimated £150,000-300,000 (now an approximate A$20-40 million), and the vast majority of these were lost or stolen following the crash. The fate of the diamonds remains an officially unsolved mystery.

The plane was manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company, and first flew on August 1937. It was delivered to KLM on August 25, was initially registered as airreg|PH|ALP, and was based in the Netherlands. On May 10, 1940, as PH-ALP was on route to Asia, Nazi forces invaded the Netherlands. The plane was transferred to KLM's Asian subsidiary, Royal Netherlands Indies Airways (KNILM) and was re-registered as PK-AFV.

On March 3, 1942, the pilot of PK-AFV was a Russian World War I ace, Ivan Smirnov (or Smirnoff). He, with another two crew members, were transporting nine refugees, fleeing the Japanese invasion of Java.

A package containing the diamonds, which belonged to a Bandung firm named NV de Concurent, was handed to Smirnov on the morning of March 3 by a KLM staffer at Bandung airport. Smirnov was instructed to hand it to a representative of the Commonwealth Bank once he reached Australia. He was reportedly unaware of its contents.

At about 10.30am, as the Dakota neared Broome, skirting the Kimberley coast, three Mitsubishi Zeroes — led by the Japanese ace Lt Zenjiro Miyano — were returning to their base in Timor, following the first air raid on Broome. Smirnov was following the coastline towards Broome. The Japanese pilots, who were at a higher altitude than the DC-3, dived at it and fired at its port side. Smirnov was wounded in his arms and hip, but managed to put his plane into a steep spiral dive. With the port engine on fire, and fearing that a wheels-down landing on soft sand would cause the plane to roll or flip over, Smirnov opted for a beach crash-landing, terminating in the shallow surf. He achieved this at Carnot Bay, 80 km (50 mi) north of Broome.

The Zeroes then strafed the Dakota. Four passengers, including a baby, were killed outright or were seriously injured by bullets. Smirnov reported that he dropped the package of diamonds in the surf. The following day, as the survivors awaited a rescue party, a Japanese Kawanishi H6K flying boat spotted the wreck and dropped two bombs near them. The Kawanishi later returned and dropped another two bombs. None of the bombs caused any damage or injuries.

A Broome mariner named Jack Palmer, who was one of the first to arrive at the scene of the crash, later handed in over £20,000 worth of diamonds. In May 1943, Palmer and two associates, James Mulgrue and Frank Robinson, were tried and acquitted for theft of the diamonds, in the Supreme Court of Western Australia in Perth. No other person has been tried for the loss of the diamonds.

Footnotes

References

Juliet Wills, 2006. "Diamond Dakota Mystery", Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest (ISBN 978-1-74114-745-2).

William H. Tyler, 1987. "Flight of Diamonds: the Story of Broome's War and the Carnot Bay Diamonds", Hesperian Press, Perth (ISBN 0-85905-105-6).

External links

* [http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/wa02.htm ozatwar.com (Peter Dunn), "C-47 Dakota Shot Down by Japanese Aircraft after Japanese Bombing Raid on Broome Harbour £300,000 Worth of Diamonds Missing on 3 March 1942" (2000)]
* [http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/collections/maritime/march/treasures/zerohour/carnotbay.html Museum of Western Australia, "The Flight of Diamonds"]
* [http://home.hetnet.nl/~dutchairliners/klm/DC3/DC3-1965.htm Dutch Airlines (website) "Douglas DC-3-194B PH-ALP 'Pelikaan'"]