1972 Kudjero Gap air accident
Royal Australian Air Force de Havilland Canada DHC-4A Caribou · Bad weather, collision with terrain
From Lae Airfield, Lae, Papua New Guinea to Port Moresby Jacksons International Airport (POM)
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
- 25 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 4
- 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
- Military
de Havilland Canada DHC-4A Caribou
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC-4
- 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
- A4-233
- Operator
- Royal Australian Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- 25
- Route
- From Lae Airfield, Lae, Papua New GuineaTo Port Moresby Jacksons International Airport (POM)
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
The 1972 Kudjero Gap air accident occurred on 28 August 1972, when a Royal Australian Air Force de Havilland Canada DHC-4A Caribou transport aircraft struck the edge cliff of a valley in bad weather at Kudjero Gap in Papua New Guinea. On the flight were 25 passengers and four crew members. Of them, 25 were killed in the accident and four survived.
The flight was carrying cadets and their instructors, who were returning from a training camp. After three days of searching, four cadets who had survived the accident and set off to look for help were found in the jungle. In addition to them, a fifth survivor was rescued from the accident site, who however died later.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Finnish Wikipedia article “Kudjero Gapin lento-onnettomuus 1972” (revision 17448535, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
Sources
Finnish Wikipedia article: Kudjero Gapin lento-onnettomuus 1972
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 17448535 · 2018-07-20 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q55685682
- 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
- fi Wikipedia article "Kudjero Gapin lento-onnettomuus 1972" (page 1464095, revision 17448535), translated into English with AI assistance
- 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
- 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 article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Finnish Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.