1946 Australian National Airways incident at Sydney Airport

An Australian National Airways incident occurred on 7 September 1946 at Sydney Mascot Airport in Australia. On that day mechanics were carrying out conversion work on a Douglas DC-3/C-47-DL that was being converted from a former military aircraft into a civil aircraft. An explosion occurred in which one worker was killed, another was seriously injured and the aircraft was destroyed.

Sequence of events

At the time of the accident six people were inside the fuselage of the C-47. In the forward and middle sections of the fuselage, four metalworkers were working on the aircraft's fuselage structure. In the rear section was the tradesman S. Richardson, who was fitting the aircraft with soundproofing kapok insulation mats; next to him was his colleague George K. Doig, who was tasked with cleaning the aircraft's fuselage.

Suddenly the kapok material ignited explosively and the aircraft caught fire. Richardson tried to pull his colleague Doig out of the aircraft, but the latter's foot had become jammed in the cabin floor. Richardson then jumped out of the aircraft with singed hair and burning clothing. Colleagues immediately tore the burning clothing from his body. Of the metalworkers, two had jumped out of the aircraft via the side exits; the other two were literally hurled out of the entry door to the cockpit by the blast wave of the explosion.