FORCED LANDING OF A B-17 FLYING FORTRESS
AT ROCKHAMPTON AIRFIELD, QLD
ON 12 JANUARY 1943

USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress #41-2464 lost a propeller and portion of No. 1 engine over the Fitzroy River when it was approaching Rockhampton Airfield, in Queensland to land on 12 January 1943. The B-17 landed safely and a new propeller and engine were fitted by a USAAF maintenance crew.

Bob Mullins remembers that after the Battle of the Coral Sea in early May 1942, a B-17 Flying Fortress, made a forced landing at Connor Park airfield in Rockhampton. It was all shot up and lost a propeller on its landing approach, with the propeller landing in the mud on the edge of the Fitzroy River.  I'd say Bob Mullins may have been talking about the above incident which was about 8 months after the Battle of the Coral Sea.

Bob Mullins remembers visiting most of the crashes in the Rockhampton area that I have listed on my web pages. He had a piece of propeller blade from the Spitfire and last year donated it to the Caloundra Aircraft Museum. On the propeller blade he had painted the date and details of the crash. This would be available from the Caloundra Museum. He remembers the Liberator, Spitfire, Beaufighter and Kittyhawk crashes. There was a C-47 Dakota also which overshot the runway and spent some weeks on Canoona Road where the local kids managed to obtain many bits and pieces. Bob had the perspex from the toilet window of the C-47 to make brooches and his friend Bert Cairns (now deceased who eventually joined the RAAF) had the wheel from the joystick and other bits and pieces. Unfortunately 12 year old kids did not keep diaries so Bob has no specific dates.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I'd like to thank Bob Mullins who as a boy lived near Connor Park airfield in Rockhampton.

REFERENCE BOOK

"Aircraft of the RAAF 1921- 71"
By Geoffrey Pentland & Peter Malone

21 Operational Base Unit Operations Record Book

Can anyone help me with more information on this crash?

"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products

This page first produced 26 April 1999

This page last updated 26 June 2023