FLIGHT FINDINGSAVIATION OCCURRENCE MAP
Back to map

Australian National Airways Flight 331

2 Sept 1948 · Near Nundle, New South Wales, Australia

Douglas DC-3C-SIC3G · CFIT

From Eagle Farm Airport, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia to Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)

Report a problem

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
13 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
Unknown
Survivors
0
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
Unknown
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
Airline

Douglas DC-3C-SIC3G

Aircraft type
Douglas DC-3
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
VH-ANK (c/n 9999)
Onboard fatalities
13
Route
From Eagle Farm Airport, Brisbane, Queensland, AustraliaTo Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)

Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.

From the Wikipedia article

Australian National Airways Flight 331 was a passenger flight on 2 September 1948, operated by Lutana, a Douglas DC-3 of Australian National Airways, which crashed into high terrain en route from Brisbane to Sydney, killing all 13 on board. A judicial enquiry by a Supreme Court Judge determined that the crash was caused by errors in radio navigation equipment used by the pilot to navigate the route from Brisbane to Sydney.

One of the passengers was Margaret McIntyre, the first woman elected to the Parliament of Tasmania.

Flight

On 2 September 1948, the Lutana departed Brisbane's airport on a scheduled flight to Sydney. About 280 nautical miles (520 km) south of Brisbane it crashed into rising terrain in the North West Slopes of Australia's Great Dividing Range, due to an erroneously determined position based on errors in the navigational equipment the pilots relied upon for determining a safe course through the rising terrain.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Australian National Airways Flight 331” (revision 1349242987, 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: Australian National Airways Flight 331
Article
Australian National Airways Flight 331
Revision
1349242987 · 2026-04-16 · retrieved 2026-09-18
Wikidata
Q4566211
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 "Australian National Airways Flight 331" (page 28940320, revision 1349242987)
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
flight number in the article title
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.