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1949 Queensland Airlines Lockheed Lodestar crash

1940s in Queensland1949 disasters in AustraliaAviation accidents and incidents in 1949Aviation accidents and incidents in QueenslandDisasters in Queensland
History of Gold Coast, QueenslandMarch 1949 events in AustraliaUse Australian English from January 2016
Queensland Airlines VH BAG
Queensland Airlines VH BAG

On 10 March 1949 a Lockheed Lodestar aircraft became airborne at Coolangatta, Queensland, Australia for a flight to Brisbane. Before reaching a height of 300 feet (90 m) it suddenly pitched nose-up, stalled and crashed onto its belly beyond the end of the airstrip. Fuel from the aircraft's tanks caught fire and the aircraft burned fiercely. All 21 people on board died, either of injuries during the crash or in the ensuing conflagration. It was the worst civil aviation accident in Queensland at the time, and the second-worst accident in Australia. It occurred exactly three years after the worst, the ANA DC-3 crash near Hobart on 10 March 1946.Investigation of the crash uncovered some errors in the information used to determine the position of the aircraft's centre of gravity. It became clear that the aircraft had taken off with its centre of gravity slightly outside the approved limits. Investigators also found evidence that the takeoff may have been performed with the elevator trim tab still set for landing. If the elevator trim tab had not been set for takeoff this would have been exacerbated by the incorrect position of the centre of gravity and the aircraft would have been uncontrollable.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article 1949 Queensland Airlines Lockheed Lodestar crash (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

1949 Queensland Airlines Lockheed Lodestar crash
Gold Coast Highway, Tweed Shire Council

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N -28.1638 ° E 153.5113 °
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Gold Coast Airport

Gold Coast Highway
2485 Tweed Shire Council, Tweed Heads West
New South Wales, Australia
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goldcoastairport.com.au

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Queensland Airlines VH BAG
Queensland Airlines VH BAG
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