1937 Airlines of Australia Stinson crash


The 1937 Airlines of Australia Stinson crash was an accident which occurred on 19 February 1937. The Airlines of Australia Stinson Model A airliner disappeared during a flight from Brisbane to Sydney, carrying five passengers and two pilots. Both pilots and two passengers were killed in the crash. One of the surviving passengers died while attempting to bring help to the other survivors.
The wreckage was found by Bernard O'Reilly of the Lamington Guest House who went looking for the aircraft believing it had failed to cross the border. The aircraft had crashed in the McPherson Range on the border between Queensland and New South Wales.

Crash and discovery

The aircraft was heard by people in Lamington and Hill View at approximately 2 p.m. on 19 February. It was circling at low altitude and then headed towards the mountain range. There was heavy rain in the area at the time. After the aircraft was found to be missing, O'Reilly believed that it must have had insufficient height to clear the mountains and subsequently crashed somewhere in the McPherson range. He hiked into the mountains to look for the aircraft on Saturday 28 February and, after camping overnight, he found the body of James Guthrie Westray, aged 25, from London. Jim Westray had received major burns and other minor injuries in the accident and went to find help, but died after he fell over a cliff. Then O'Reilly found the crash site with the two survivors waiting by the wreckage: Joseph Binstead who was uninjured, and John Proud who had a broken leg. On seeing O'Reilly, they asked to shake his hand and then wanted to know the cricket scores. They had been able to get water from a creek about a mile from the crash site but had had no food. The other two passengers and the two pilots died from injuries sustained in the crash.

Dramatisation

The Riddle of the Stinson, a 1987 made-for-TV drama film about the crash and rescue, was broadcast in 1988 on Network 10. Directed by Chris Noonan, it starred Jack Thompson as O'Reilly.