History
Four airmen killed when bomber flew into fog-bound Arthurs Seat By Cameron McCullough
A
rthurs Seat has been the scene of two RAAF aircraft crashes. The first was an Avro Anson A4 on 10 August 1938, resulting in the loss of four lives and only one survivor. The second was a Bristol Beaufort A9-64 on 12 July 1942, with all four crewmen killed. This is the story of the Avro Anson crash. On 10 August 1938, five RAAF Avro Anson A4 bombers from No. 2 Squadron based at Point Cook were on navigational exercises. The aircraft followed a short triangular course with Port Phillip, Western Port and the Gellibrand lighthouse at Williamstown as the three points. Due to worsening weather, the bombers had been recalled to Point Cook and four had landed. Mid-morning the air force was given the tragic news that A4-29 had crashed into the northwestern face of Arthurs Seat. Four men had been killed and one had miraculously survived. At 9.45am, while flying in low cloud over Arthurs Seat, A4-29 had mysteriously crashed into the 300-metre high hillside. The front of the aircraft was completely demolished after ploughing through trees, but the tail and mid sections were reasonably intact.
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April 2017
The survivor was the turret gunner, James Glover, who was in the rear half of the aircraft. Aircraftsman Glover, a 31-year-old rigger from Hawthorn, had sustained abrasions and was in severe shock. He was admitted to Dromana Bush Nursing Hospital. Killed were Pilot Officer Stanley Robert Symonds, aged 22 years, of Adelaide; Flight Sergeant John Mahon Gillespie, 28, of St Kilda; Aircraftsman Kenneth Campbell McKerrow, 23, of Carnegie; and Aircraftsman Robert Windram Mawson, 28, of Turramurra, NSW. Their deaths brought to 10 the number of airmen killed that year, a record in peace-time Australia. A dense fog and drizzling rain limited visibility to about 30 metres (100ft) on Arthurs Seat when the plane roared in from the sea. Lopping the tops of the taller trees with its wing tips, the bomber crashed about 200 metres (600ft) up the hillside. The crash was heard by residents of Dromana about six and a half kilometres (four miles) away. Men working on the main road only 400 metres from the scene were first to reach the wreckage, about four minutes after the crash. They found the pilot dead and three other men unconscious near the Anson. A fifth member of the crew was seen struggling from the cabin.