Date:	Friday 11 September 1970
Time:
Type:	Auster J/5P Autocar
Owner/operator:	Vic Pedersen
Registration:	VH-BTG
MSN:	3257
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Port Warrender, Admiralty Gulf, WA -   Australia
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Private
Departure airport:	Troughton Island Airport, Western Australia (YTTI)
Destination airport:	Mitchell Plateau, Western Australia (YMIP)
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
VH-BTG was purchased in Mount Isa in 1966 for £1,200, as a replacement for Auster VH-UED which had crashed in March of that year. This was the best registration yet received. 'Bringing The Gospel' to the outback was the significance that was attached to it by Salvation Army personnel and those that were visited.

The final trip for VH-BTG was in the West Kimberlies on 11 September 1970. It left Troughton Island and about 20 minutes from the Mitchell Plateau and the engine misfired. The Flying Padre, Captain Vic Pederson, recounted, "I did a steep turn towards land and a gush of oil hit the windscreen. My height was 3.000 feet. By pushing the engine to its limits, I could almost maintain height."

Captain Pederson managed to land on very soft mud flats near the coast, at Port Warrender, Admiralty Gulf, Western Australia, but the rising tide later covered the aircraft in several feet of water, the result being that VH-BTG went to a watery end.

Auster J/5P Auster G-AOFM is now preserved at the Darwin Aviation Museum, and is painted to represent VH-BTG (although it retains its original UK registration). In his time with the Salvation Army, Vic Pedersen crashed four times - once in a Tiger Moth and three times in three different Austers (VH-BYS, VH-UED and VH-BTG). The crash of VH-BTG was the last of these, and it was replaced by a Cessna 182, VH-KOG

1. [LINK NOT WORKING ANYMORE:http://www.salvationarmy.org.au/en/Find-Us/Northern-Territory/Flying-Padre/Aircraft/]
2. http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac1/austb/VH-BTG.html
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troughton_Island_Airport
4. [LINK NOT WORKING ANYMORE:http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/nt/content/2006/s1797098.htm]
5. http://austerhg.org/prod_list/pages.php?page=3149

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
17-May-2008 11:10	ASN archive	Added
13-Oct-2009 04:13	cybersnas	Updated
14-Apr-2014 00:41	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
14-Apr-2014 00:43	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Destination airport, Narrative]
07-Jun-2022 20:14	Ron Averes	Updated [Location]