Connair Flight 1263
de Havilland DH.114 Riley Heron 2E/A1 · Controlled flight into terrain
From Mount Isa Airport (ISA) to Cairns International Airport (CNS)
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
- 11 · 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
de Havilland DH.114 Riley Heron 2E/A1
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DH-114
- 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-CLS
- Operator
- Connair
- Onboard fatalities
- 11
- Route
- From Mount Isa Airport (ISA)To Cairns International Airport (CNS)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
Connair Flight 1263 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by Australian airline Connair from Mount Isa Airport to Cairns Airport on 23 October 1975 with a de Havilland Heron aircraft. During approach to Cairns Airport, the aircraft crashed at 19:28 (local time), killing the eight passengers and three crew on board. It was later determined that the pilots had not adhered to the standard operational procedures for a missed approach when the aeroplane could not be properly aligned with the runway.
The crash is one of the worst civil aviation disasters in Australia.
Accident
On 23 October 1975, VH-CLS was flying Connair Flight 1263 from Alice Springs Airport in the Northern Territory to Cairns Airport via Mount Isa Airport, both in Queensland. The aircraft had departed Alice Springs just after 13:00 Australian Central Standard Time (13:30 Eastern Standard Time (EST)) and arrived at Mount Isa at 15:35 EST. It then took off for the second leg of the flight at 16:55, with two pilots, a flight attendant and eight passengers on board. At 19:17 EST it was cleared for Runway 15 at Cairns Airport. It was stormy weather, with heavy rain and lightning. The aircraft was misaligned with the runway and at 19:26 the pilot reported "going round". It turned away from the airport, descended to a low altitude and made a 270 degree turn to the left. The aircraft then made a right hand turn during which it descended and crashed 2.8 km North-West of Runway 15 in a sugar cane plantation. The aircraft was totally destroyed and all eleven people on board were killed.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The investigation into the crash was conducted by the Air Safety Investigation Branch of the Australian government's Department of Transport. The pilot in command and the air traffic controller were appropriately licensed, with the second pilot being appropriately qualified, but his licence was technically invalid at the time of the accident. There was not any defect in the aircraft that contributed to the crash. Prior to departure there was not a prediction of bad weather conditions at the arrival airport, but the pilot received in time sufficient
information about the bad weather conditions. At low altitude the aircraft was in heavy to torrential rain but the weather conditions were better than the minima prescribed for landing at Runway 15 with an instrument landing system approach. The pilot in command did not act in conformance to the prescribed instrument landing system procedure, nor did he conform to the prescribed missed approach procedure. After the go-around, the pilot did not climb to a safe altitude for unknown reasons.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Connair Flight 1263” (revision 1371674267, 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: Connair Flight 1263
- Article
- Connair Flight 1263
- Revision
- 1371674267 · 2026-08-27 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q133828343
- 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 "Connair Flight 1263" (page 38433042, revision 1371674267)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- 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.