ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 300630
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| Date: | Friday 29 January 1943 |
| Time: | 13:50 |
| Type: |  Lockheed Ventura II |
| Owner/operator: | SAAF |
| Registration: | K |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 3 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Rocky Point, Skeleton Coast, Kaokoveld -
 Namibia
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | |
| FYWB |
A South African Air Force Lockheed Ventura had been sent to drop supplies to passengers stranded on the shore after the UK refrigerated cargo liner, MV Dunedin Star had run aground on November 29, 1942 on the Skeleton Coast of northern Namibia or South West Africa as it was known then. On December 3, 1942, the Ventura, flown by Captain Immins Overbeek Naude dropped water and food supplies which, unfortunately, were lost when the water containers burst on impact with the ground and the food parcels mostly suffered the same fate. Captain Naude and his crew felt they couldn't leave the stranded survivors for possibly as long as another week and decided to land the Ventura in the dunes. After doing a reconnaissance of the area, he successfully landed on a level stretch of sand about 3.2km inland of the shore. While taxiing back to the point where it first touched down, the Ventura become bogged in the sand where it remained for almost two months. In late January 1943, a SAAF maintenance crew was sent from Cape Town to make the aircraft airworthy and build a temporary runway. Just after 1 pm on January 29, 1943, the aircraft took off on a flight down the coast to Walvis Bay, About three-quarters of an hour later, while flying past Rocky Point at a height of 100m, the starboard engine emitted thick black smoke, vibrated, and seized. Unable to turn to attempt a landing on the ridge at Rocky Point, Capt Naude decided to put the aircraft down in the shallow water between the surf and the sand dunes. However the speed decayed to 87 knots at a height of 47m, the starboard wing stalled and the aircraft plunged into the sea. The three crew were able to escape and make it to the shore. The aircraft was later washed ashore by wave action where parts of it were still to be found sixty years later.
Sources:
Book: Skeleton Coast - The dramatic rescue operation of the Dunedin Star by John Marsh
Images:
Photo taken 2 years after the event by a passing mineralogical survey team
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 08-Nov-2022 11:21 | Topaz | Added |
| 09-Nov-2022 15:04 | harro | Updated [Aircraft type] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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