CRASH OF A BRISTOL BEAUFORT
AT EAST SALE IN VICTORIA
ON 15 APRIL 1945

Bristol Beaufort

RAAF Mark VII Bristol Beaufort A9-130 crash landed at No. 1 OTU East Sale in Victoria 15 April 1945 when the port engine failed.

F/Lt. Wally Dalitz was about to do his first solo in a Beaufort and was on his final instructional flight with Instructor "Slim" Sommerville. During the flight "Slim" pulled the starboard throttle to test Wally's reaction to the loss of an engine and then after restarting the starboard engine he did the same to the port engine. But this time the port engine would not restart.

"Slim" took over the controls of the Beaufort to put it down. They did a circuit of the airfield and he asked Wally to put the undercarriage down, which he did and they went in for an emergency landing. Wally could see that the wheel was down on his side but was unaware that the wheel on "Slim's" side had not gone down. As they went in for a landing the wing dipped down on "Slim's" side and bit into the runway.

The crew of the aircraft was:-

F/Lt. Wally Dalitz
W/O L.F. Sommerville
Sgt. N.W. Ludbrook

This aircraft was originally delivered to the RAAF in October 1942. It was authorised for writeoff in May 1946 and was struck off charge in August 1949.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I'd like to thank Rick Hanning for his assistance with the above information.

I would also like to thank Wally Dalitz who I rang on 9 March 2000 to obtain some of the above information. I met Wally at the Caboolture '99 Air Spectacular at Caboolture airfield on 22 August 1999.

Can anyone help me with more information?

"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products

This page first produced 9 March 2000

This page last updated 22 February 2020