ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 299506
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| Date: | Sunday 7 April 1968 |
| Time: | day |
| Type: | Edgar Percival EP-9 |
| Owner/operator: | Sasin Aircraft Pty Ltd |
| Registration: | VH-DAX |
| MSN: | 40 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Juna Downs Station, Mount Bruce, near Wittenoom WA. -
 Australia
|
| Phase: | Approach |
| Nature: | Cargo |
| Departure airport: | Hamersley Station, Pilbara, WA |
| Juna Downs Station, Mount Bruce, near Wittenoom, WA. |
Purchased ex manufacturer by Tasmanian Aero Club, Launceston Tasmania 4.6.58 Construction completed at Stapleford Aerodrome, Essex by Edgar Percival Aircraft Ltd., and Shipped to Australia.
On 10.10.58 Registered VH-TCA: Tasmanian Aero Club, Launceston, Tasmania. Purchased by the Aero Club for use on their contract with the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia for medical flights. The freight hold was fitted for a stretcher and seating for doctor and nurse. The stretcher patient was loaded through the rear fairing door
On 30.4.59 Dropped 2000 rainbow trout into a lake near Ross Tasmania, flown by Ron Monroe, Chief Flying Instructor of Tasmanian Aero Club. The rear fairing door was removed for the operation. In 8.61, Sold to Air Mist Pty Ltd, Launceston Tasmania. (Tasmanian Aero Club replaced it on the Royal Flying Doctor Service contract with Cessna 175 VH-RBF) .
In 9.61 Delivered to Moorabbin for conversion by Super Spread to agricultural configuration. A hopper was fitted in the cabin area and a spray bars system installed. On 23.9.61 noted at Moorabbin, Victoira parked outside after arrival from Tasmania, waiting to having agricultural conversion by Super Spread Aviation. Retained the Tasmanian Aero Club paint scheme with club vertical stripes on rudder, and Royal Flying Doctor Service emblem on fuselage sides. Transparent cabin windows in the rear cabin.
On 2.10.61: Change of ownership: Air Mist Pty Ltd, Launceston, Melbourne, Victoria (later Adelaide, South Australia) Agricultural conversion completed by Super Spread. Hopper fitted in the cabin area and spray-bar system installed
In 5.62 noted at Parafield SA, cream and dark green, spraybars. “Air Mist Pty Ltd” and “Elders Agricultural Aviation Services” titles. On 24.6.62 noted at Moorabbin, Victoria cream & dark green. “Air Mist Pty Ltd” and “Elders Agricultural Aviation Services” titles. (Also on 14.7.62). On 28.7.62 noted at Parafield, "Air Mist" titles
16.8.62: noted at Parafield, just repainted yellow and olive, no titles. 30.9.62: visited airshow Mildura Vic, yellow and olive with no titles. 8.10.62: noted at Parafield, having maintenance in Aero Kair hangar. On 22.8.64 noted at Launceston, dismantled in Aero Club hangar.
1.4.65: Change of ownership: Doggett Aviation & Engineering Co Ltd, Perth-Jandakot WA. Re-registered VH-DAX
18.4.65: VH-DAX noted at Jandakot WA, all white with Doggett Aviation titles, red stripe down fuselage sides, Speedbird style flash on tail. "Lancashire Prospector EP9" painted on the nose. Parked outside with Doggett's other two EP-9s (VH-DAV and VH-DAI)
20.7.65: Forced landing Namban, WA due engine failure, pilot Embury not hurt.
13.12.65: Damaged during landing on rough surface near Toodyay WA: tail wheel torn away by a rock, pilot Roney not hurt
13.7.66: Extensive damage in accident at Watheroo WA, pilot Harris not hurt
15.10.66: noted at Jandakot in Doggett Aviation hangar, white with red trim. (Also 22.1.67, 1.6.67, and 20.9.67)
7.10.67: noted at Jandakot, tied down on grass, covers over the cockpit, fitted with spray booms and belly propeller driven pump, appears to be retired. Doggett titles have been painted over on tail boom, replaced with smaller sticker "Doggett Aviation Agricultural Aviation Services - Elders GM”. (Also 29.10.67 and 30.12.67). This airframe was now Doggett's last EP-9
26.1.68: Change of ownership: Sasin Aircraft Pty Ltd, Geraldton WA .The sale included all the remaining Doggett EP-9 spare parts for airframe and engine. Sasin Aircraft Pty Ltd was a maintenance and aerial agricultural company established by Mike Sasin at Geraldton in 1967. He had a long aviation career, the previous year moving his business to WA from Goulburn NSW where he had developed the Sasin-Aerostructures SA-29 Spraymaster, a Chipmunk conversion low-cost agricultural Tiger Moth replacement, built at Bankstown from 1965. Sasin was unable to fly at that time because of head injuries sustained in a Piper Pawnee crop spraying accident at Goulburn in December 1965. He had the EP-9 ferried to Geraldton where he removed the agricultural equipment to use the aircraft for freight and passenger carrying.
26.3.68
VH-DAX made an emergency flight from Geraldton to East Wallaby Island to collect a seriously ill commercial fisherman. DCA approved the EP-9 to use the minimal airstrip, flown by Geraldton Air Charter chief pilot John Walmsley who had been earlier endorsed on type by Sasin. Mike Sasin had earlier repaired Cessna 172A VH-AWG for Keith Wilkin, manager of Hamersley Station near Wittenoom WA owned by iron ore magnate Lang Hancock. (VH-AWG's nose gear had been torn off in October 1967 when Wilkin was low flying over a vehicle on a road near Wittenoom and the Cessna's nose wheel struck the roof of the vehicle, injuring those on board. Wilkin continued to Hamersley Station. He did not have a valid pilot licence)
In 3.68: Wilkin requested Sasin carry out a routine major inspection on the Cessna 172 at the Geraldton hangar and supply a replacement aircraft while the Cessna was on overhaul. Sasin loaned him EP.9 VH-DAX, on condition it only be flown by the Hammersley Station commercial pilot Steve Pearson. Pearson delivered the Cessna to Geraldton and after endorsement on type, flew the EP.9 to Hamersley Station.
In 4.68 EP.9 VH-DAX was flown regularly at Hamersey Station, proving useful because of its ability to carry bulky loads, including carrying 44 gallon fuel drums to mining camps in remote locations.
On 7.4.68: Crashed on Juna Downs Station, Mount Bruce, near Wittenoom WA. According to the DCA accident report: “The pilot was unfamiliar with the aircraft. He did not maintain flying speed on final approach and the aircraft stalled then touched down heavily, collapsing the landing gear before overturning.” Pilot had only 1 hour experience on type, but 2,000 hours total time on other aircraft. A female passenger was sitting in the loader-driver seat, both received minor injuries. A 44 gallon drum of fuel being carried was not secured by net or ropes. Wilkin did not report the accident to DCA and towed the wreck from the airfield by three Land Rovers to a remote site where it was hidden. Despite some reports, VH-DAX was never buried by means of a bulldozer, but it was dismantled and dumped, with the parts scattered in a 400 yard radius. This is believed to have been an attempt to hide the evidence or the crash, and avoid prosecution. According to one report from a person who was involved:
"I am the person who put this aircraft back together back in about 2009 the accident site was only about 500 metres from its current site, they never buried it but they did deconstruct it and spread the parts all over the pilbara. The location of the fuselage as been known for years because they built the now Karijini drive near in the 1990s. I had a very keen interest to find the rest of the parts and solve this 1968 puzzle , i knew most of the history i heard stories from old timers of the area, one who now lives in Karratha an old aboriginal fella who was there the day they crashed.
What is now the ranger station was then an out station. I found the other parts, wings and tail section by using google earth and marking any anomalies i could see ,one wing 120 metres away, one 200 metres the other way, tail section 400 metres and using a GPS had to walk within 4 or 5 metres of a wing to actually even see it in the long grasses and spinifex (quite a moment for me) One day I would like to move the wreck to the nearby Karijini Visitor Centre (National Park) and put it back together in its anatomical correctness and with a information board telling about its history. At the time the Park didn't have any funds available for this project and may be will get to it one of these days. have some photos but can't upload"
On 21.8.68 William Keith Wilkin was prosecuted by DCA in court over breaches of Air Navigation Regulations involved in the EP-9 accident. He had earlier been prosecuted for the Cessna accident
In 2013 Fuselage frame and sections of wing and tailplane remain in scrub on Juna Downs Station (but see above.)
Sources:
1. The E.P.9 Story, Mike Sasin, Hesperian Press, Perth WA 2014"
2. https://www.goodall.com.au/australian-aviation/percival-ep9/percivalep9.html
3. https://www.key.aero/comment/1760900#comment-1760900
4. https://air-britain.com/pdfs/archive/Archive_1992.pdf
5. https://www.key.aero/comment/1669599#comment-1669599 [history of aircraft, photo of remains)
6. https://aeropedia.com.au/content/percival-ep-9/
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juna_Downs
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karijini_National_Park
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 19-Oct-2022 21:04 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
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