Thread: The story of Australia’s first civilian turboprop crash

Originally Posted by Old Farang

Death in the afternoon | Flight Safety Australia

Three o’clock is either too early or too late for anything you want to do, the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre declared. With a broad view and 65 years of hindsight it’s easy to philosophise that 3 pm on Sunday 31 October 1954 might have been a good time for the crew of VH-TVA to take a tea break.

TVA was an early production Vickers Viscount, the first of its type in Australia. It had been in the country for 18 days, flying a few passenger services, but was mostly being used for crew training. TAA was the fourth airline in the world to order the pressurised four-engine turboprop at the unprecedented price of A£217,000 (A$434,000) per aircraft.

While reluctant to make light of a terrible accident, stopping on the way to the hospital for a beer, is just so Australian, for the time.