The Late Miss Tindall
Coolah residents received a painful shock in early July, 1951, when news came to hand of the death of Miss Francis Daisy Tindall, a former resident of the town. She was a passenger in a Qantas Plane which had crashed into the sea off Lae in New Guinea. All the six passengers plus the pilot lost their lives in the crash.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The plane was travelling from Bulolo (gold town) and all appeared well when the pilot asked for and was given landing instructions at Lae. When he was not sighted over the aerodrome ten minutes later, a search was started by an aircraft and a Civil Aviation trawler, which picked up two bodies from the sea, one mile from the shore, and four miles south of Lae.
The late Miss Tindall was the daughter of Mr and Mrs. H.H. Tindall of Binnia Street, Coolah, being one of four sisters and eight brothers. Miss Tindall's sister "Nellie" McBeth was a well-known charity worker, whilst her brother was manager of the Coolah Baths for some years and noted for the number of children he taught to swim.
Francis was for some years attached to the P.M.G. Department, starting as a telephonist at Coolah, then later in Sydney. When she resigned from the Department she joined the Australian Gas Light Company. She than took an appointment with Qantas Airways.
The deceased, 30 years of age went to New Guinea, about three months before the crash. She was accompanied by her close friend, Miss Helen Jean Connor, who was also killed. Miss Connor went to New Guinea to marry James Palmer, who was another fatality in the crash.
Read more: The pity of Australian children at war
The crashed plane was the first Haviland Drover, three engine aircraft, to be built in Australia. It had a cruising speed of 135 mph and a flying range of 500 miles seating six passengers and the pilot. The aircraft left Bulolo abound for Lae.
Thirty one minutes later, pilot J. W. Spiers, while approaching the Lae airport, informed the ground about his position over the Markham River. While flying in a visibility of two miles due to rain falls, the pilot lost control of the aircraft and crashed into the sea.
The initial finding of the subsequent investigation was pilot error that he continued the flight on VFR into reduced visibility in low cloud and rain.
Read more: Mudgee History | The year 1864
The wreckage salvaged included the centre propeller which was missing a blade. Renewed investigations revealed that the missing centre propeller blade suffered a structural failure and broke away in flight, causing the engine to pull out of its mounting and the pilot to lose control of the aircraft which then crashed into the sea.
The pilot was John William Spears of Lidcombe, Sydney. He joined Qantas the previous year, after having worked for Australian National Airways. He won the D.F.C. during the war when serving, in England as a bomber pilot. John was born in 1921, joined the RAAF on February 5,1941, and was discharged as a pilot officer on December 5, 1945.
Besides the passengers and pilot the crashed plane contained 10 bars of gold, worth 35,000 pounds which was placed on the plane at Bulolo. The remainder of the gold was salvaged, under the supervision of Captain J.W. Herd, who had recovered 2,397,000 pounds worth of gold, in 1942, from the sunken liner, Niagara, off the coast of New Zealand.
The Lae 'drome was constructed in 1927,and was an operating airport until 1977. Its construction resulted in Lae becoming the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea, with a town population of 2012 and a district of 100,677 people.
