Catalina Crash Site Confirmed

Posted 6 October 2015

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Photo by Kevin Coombs

The Royal Australian Air Force has confirmed on 28 September 2015 that wreckage of an aircraft found in the ocean waters south of Cairns is that of a Consolidated Catalina Mk. I (PBY-5) maritime patrol aircraft that crashed on 28 February 1943. All eleven crewmen aboard the aircraft (RAAF serial number A24-25) perished. On 28 February 1943, the crew of A24-25 was engaged on a seventeen-hour hour mission to provide anti-submarine cover to a convoy heading for Papua, New Guinea. Out of fuel, the aircraft crashed while attempting a water landing. There were no witnesses and no sightings of wreckage. The RAAF will leave the wreckage where it lies and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has declared the site a special management area in order to protect it.

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