Date:	Thursday 22 July 1937
Time:	11:57 LT
Type:	de Havilland DH.60G Moth
Owner/operator:	1 FTS RAAF
Registration:	A7-40
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Port Phillip Bay, off Portalington, 2 miles SE of Point Cook, Victoria -   Australia
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAAF Point Cook, Victoria (YMPC)
Destination airport:

Narrative:
A contract [no.19506] was awarded by the Department of Defence for the RAAF in March 1929 for the licence-production of 32 Moths, at a unit cost of £448-10-0, excluding engines to be built by Larkin Aircraft Supply Co Ltd, Coode Island, Melbourne ["LASCO"]. They were initially intended to be DH.60X Cirrus II Moths and the contract specified delivery of the first twelve by 31.1.30. However, production slipped and it is believed that all were fitted with Gipsy Is. No c/nos. were issued: airframes were identified by their RAAF serials A7-23 to A7-54.

A7-40 was built as a Moth Seaplane. Delivered to 1 FTS RAAF Point Cook, Victoria [by 4.36].

Written off (destroyed) when floats dug into the sea in a low turn and crashed into Port Phillip Bay, off Portalington, 2 miles South East of Point Cook, Victoria 22.7.37. Both crew on board killed, probably death by drowning.

Crew of Moth A7-40:
Pilot Officer Charles Alexander Houston - killed 22.7.37, recovered from near the spot where the wreckage hit the sea
Pilot Officer Ernest Walter Yde - killed 22.7.37, body washed ashore two days later (Saturday 24.7.37). It is reported that he divested himself of most of his clothing in an attempt to swim ashore.

As reported in a contemporary local newspaper (Advocate (Burnie, Tasmania) Wednesday 28 July 1937 Page 7 - see link #1)

"FLYING-OFFICER HOUSTON'S BODY FOUND IN BAY.
Was Still Buoyed by Life Jacket.
MELBOURNE. Tuesday.
Buoyed by a still partly inflated life jacket, the body of Pilot Officer Charles Alexander Houston (23), of Hawthorn, was recovered by two fishermen in Port Phillip Bay, near Point Cook, this afternoon.

Houston's watch had stopped at 11.57. Houston was one of two officers who died when a Royal Australian Air Force seaplane dived into the sea when returning from exercises at Rye last Thursday, July 22.

No trace of Pilot-Officer Ernest Walter Yde (20), of West Australia, the other occupant of the 'plane, has been found. The life jacket is part of the regulation equipment worn by seaplane personnel on flights.

The fact that it was still inflated, and that there were no marks on Houston's body gives rise to the belief that after the crash he came to the surface, inflated his jacket, and remained afloat, unable to attract the attention of search 'planes passing overhead.

The body was found by two Italian fishermen while they were fishing between the south and west channels, two miles south-east' of Point Cook, and close to the spot where Portarlington fishermen said they saw the 'plane disappear.

Part of an aeroplane propeller found on the beach to-day at Carnun was identified by an Air Board expert as belonging to an R.A.A.F. machine. The authorities say it is practically certain that it came from the 'plane in which, Houston disappeared".

Wreckage and both of the crew were recovered; the second crew member was washed ashore on Saturday 24 July. A later report (The Herald (Melbourne, Vic.) Monday 30 August 1937 Page 15 - see link #3) reported on the post mortem examination of the second crew member:

"POST-MORTEM ON AIRMEN KILLED IN BAY
A post-mortem, examination today on the body of Pilot-Officer Ernest Walter Yde, 20, of Claremont, Western, Australia, who' crashed into the sea, at Point Cook in a Royal Australian Air Force seaplane on July 22, revealed no signs of injury.

Yde was found on the beach near Point Cook aerodrome on Saturday afternoon, clad only in a jacket and shorts.
A report on the post-mortem examination, stated it was not possible to say the actual cause of death, but it was possibly due to drowning"

Struck off charge 1.9.37 as "destroyed". Portarlington is a historic coastal township located on the Bellarine Peninsula, 28 km from the city of Geelong, in the state of Victoria, Australia.

1. Advocate (Burnie, Tasmania) Wednesday 28 July 1937 Page 7 FLYING-OFFICER HOUSTON'S BODY FOUND IN BAY: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/68441035
2. The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW) Monday 30 August 1937 Page 4 PILOTS BODY FOUND: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/247215061
3. The Herald (Melbourne, Vic.) Monday 30 August 1937 Page 15 POST-MORTEM ON AIRMEN KILLED IN BAY;https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/247215061
4. The Labor Daily (Sydney, NSW) Monday 30 August 1937 Page 1 FLOATED HOURS AND DIED: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/237753165
5. https://www.ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/dh60.pdf
6. http://www.adf-serials.com.au/CMS/raaf2/2a7
7. https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Ernest_Yde_%282%29
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portarlington,_Victoria

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
06-Feb-2024 10:18	Dr. John Smith	Added
06-Feb-2024 18:59	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Operator]