Bakers Creek air crash
United States Army Air Forces Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress · Crashed on take-off; cause unknown
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 40 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 41
- Survivors
- 1
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 1
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Military
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
- Aircraft type
- Boeing B-17
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- 40-2072
- Operator
- United States Army Air Forces
- Onboard fatalities
- 40
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The Bakers Creek air crash was an aviation disaster that occurred on 14 June 1943, when a United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft crashed at Bakers Creek, Queensland, Australia. The aircraft took off from Mackay and crashed approximately 8 km south of the airfield. Forty military service personnel (all US) on board were killed; one person survived the crash.
This air crash in June 1943 was followed by the military Rewan air crash in November 1943 (killing 19 persons) and the military Canal Creek air crash in December 1943 (killing 31 people). The Bakers Creek air crash is Australia's deadliest aviation disaster by death toll, and was the deadliest accident involving a transport aircraft in the south-western Pacific during World War II.
Crash
The aircraft took off from Mackay Airfield just before dawn at about 6:00 am in foggy conditions, headed for Port Moresby. Flames were seen along the fuselage and the wings. Soon after, it made a low-altitude turn and crashed a few minutes later. All but one person on board was killed. The sole survivor was in the tail space which had broken off as the plane crashed. The cause of the crash remains a mystery.
Due to wartime censorship, there was no press coverage of the accident. Deceased members were moved to a Townsville war cemetery.
Australia's equal second deadliest aviation disaster, the 1960 crash of Trans Australia Airlines Flight 538, also occurred at Mackay Airfield.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Bakers Creek air crash” (revision 1372554476, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Bakers Creek air crash
- Article
- Bakers Creek air crash
- Revision
- 1372554476 · 2026-09-01 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q4849260
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Bakers Creek air crash" (page 17923013, revision 1372554476)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.