1938 Kyeema Crash

1938 Kyeema crash

Artist's impression of the Kyeema crashing through trees.
Occurrence summary
Date	October 25, 1938 (1938-10-25)
Summary	Poor visibility, pilot error
Site	Mount Dandenong (Mount Corhanwarrabul), Dandenong Ranges, Victoria, Australia 37°49′59″S 145°20′56″E / 37.833°S 145.349°E / -37.833; 145.349Coordinates: 37°49′59″S 145°20′56″E / 37.833°S 145.349°E / -37.833; 145.349
Passengers	14
Crew	4
Fatalities	18 (all)
Injuries (non-fatal)	0
Survivors	0
Aircraft type	Douglas DC-2-210
Aircraft name	Kyeema
Operator	Australian National Airways
Registration	VH-UYC
Flight origin	Adelaide Airport, Adelaide, South Australia
Destination	Essendon Airport, Melbourne, Victoria

The Kyeema airline crash took place on 25 October 1938 when the Australian National Airways Douglas DC-2 Kyeema, tail number VH-UYC, flying from Adelaide to Melbourne, commenced final approach to Essendon Airport through heavy fog and crashed into the western slopes of Mount Dandenong, also known as Mount Corhanwarrabul, killing all 18 on board instantly.

The flight took off from Adelaide at 11:22. As it entered the area around Melbourne, it came across a heavy cloud layer, extending from 1500 feet (457 m) to 400 feet (122 m) and making landmark navigation difficult. As a result, the flight crew mistakenly identified Sunbury as Daylesford through a gap in the clouds, leading them to believe that they were 30 kilometres (19 miles) behind where they actually were on their flight plan.

Had the flight crew cross-referenced their ground speed with previous landmarks, they would likely have realised that they were not where they thought they were. Instead, they overshot Essendon and, unable to see through the heavy fog, crashed into Mount Dandenong a few hundred metres from the summit.

Exactly what happened in the last few minutes before the crash is disputed. There are claims that the pilots may have seen the mountain coming and tried to turn the aircraft away, inadvertently making the situation worse by adjusting from a flight path through a gap between two peaks to a path directly into one of them.

There is also strong evidence that the pilots were becoming unsure of their position. According to Macarthur Job's book, Disaster in the Dandenongs, the radio operator had requested the controller at Essendon give them a radio bearing. Essendon had acknowledged and told them to leave their transmitter on, but the signal stopped and no further contact was made. It is thought that this is the moment that Kyeema hit the mountain.

There were 18 people on board the DC-2: 14 passengers, the captain, the first officer, an air hostess, and a cadet pilot who operated the radio during the flight.