1942 Qantas Short Empire shootdown

1942 aviation accident July 2014 August 2020 Accident 1942 Qantas Short Empire shootdown File:Qantas Short C Class Empire flying boat VH-ABB 'Coolangatta', ca. 1940.jpg VH-ABB, a Qantas Short Empire similar to the aircraft involved 30 January 1942 Shootdown West Timor, Dutch East Indies 14 4 18 13 5 Short Empire S.23 G-AEUH El Tari International Airport Darwin International Airport Qantas The 1942 Qantas Short Empire shoot-down occurred in the early days of the Pacific War during World War II. Corio, a Short Empire flying boat airliner operated by Qantas, was shot down by Japanese aircraft off the coast of West Timor, Dutch East Indies, on 30 January 1942, killing 13 of the occupants.Crash of a Short S.23 Empire Flying Boat off Kupang: 13 killed https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-short-s23-empire-flying-boat-kupang-13-killed Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives 28 May 2025 Aircraft history Corio Short Empire S.23 Short Brothers G-AEUH QantasImperial Airways 1938–1942 Shot down 30 January 1942 Corio, named after Corio, Victoria, was built as an S.23 Empire by Short Brothers and entered service with Qantas in October 1938 registered as VH-ABD then was sold to Imperial Airways in September 1939.http://www.adf-serials.com/research/empireflyingboats.pdf Wynnum B. Graham 2001 Empire C Class Flying Boats adf-serials.com 1 11 July 2010 3 March 2016 https://web.archive.org/web/20160303225810/http://www.adf-serials.com/research/empireflyingboats.pdf dead The airliner, after being re-registered in the UK as G-AEUH, was then leased back to Qantas. Air attack On 30 January 1942, G-AEUH, captained by A. A. (Aub) Koch, left Darwin at dawn, for Kupang, West Timor, en route to Surabaya, where it was to pick up refugees from the Japanese invasion of Java and transport them to Australia.Cassidy 2004, p. 164. When it was 13 nmi on from West Timor, travelling at a height of 400 ft m on, Corio was fired on by seven Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters.Gunn 1987, p. 44. Koch dived for the coast, attempting to evade the attack and the aircraft reached its maximum speed, possibly 200 mph. Koch flew a zig-zag, so low that the wing floats bounced off the sea. The Zero pilots soon achieved several hits, perforating the fuselage and killing some passengers. Two engines caught fire and Corio hit the sea at high speed, nose first, 3 nmi on from the mouth of the Noelmini River; the impact breaking the fuselage in two. Of the 18 passengers and crew, 13 were killed in the attack.http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17786294 The Sydney Morning Herald 4 February 1942 National Library of Australia, Australian Newspapers 9 11 July 2010 13 Killed in Air Crash: Enemy Attack on Flying-boat Koch, wounded in an arm and leg, was thrown out of the wreckage by the impact. He managed to swim ashore, taking three hours. Koch, three passengers and two crew were rescued by a Dornier Do 24 flying boat of the Royal Netherlands Navy.Wire service, "Five of 18 Survive Jap Attack on Plane", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Wednesday 4 February 1942, Volume 48, page 2. Koch later survived another attack by Japanese aircraft, and the crash of another Empire flying boat. On 19 February 1942, while he was recuperating in Darwin Hospital, the Bombing of Darwin took place.Gunn 1987, p. 51. On 22 April 1943, Koch was piloting Camilla, another Qantas Short Empire, on a flight from Australia to New Guinea, when it crashed in the sea off Port Moresby in bad weather. See also List of Qantas fatal accidents 1942 KNILM Douglas DC-3 shootdown References Notes Bibliography Cassidy Brian Flying Empires: Short ‘C’ class Empire flying boats 2004 Queens Parade Press Bath http://www.seawings.co.uk/images/EmpireProfilebookgal/EmpireProPubMono.pdf 27 April 2026 978-0-95-292982-6 Gunn John Challenging Horizons: Qantas 1939–1954 1987 University of Queensland Press St Lucia, Qld 978-0-70-222205-4 5 S 120 E title Category:Airliner shootdown incidents involving combat aircraft Category:Transport in the Dutch East Indies Category:1942 in Australia Category:1942 mass murders Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in 1942 Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in Indonesia Category:Qantas accidents and incidents Category:20th-century aircraft shootdown incidents Category:January 1942 in Asia Category:1942 disasters in Asia Category:Aviation accidents and incidents involving the Short Empire Qantas Short Empire shootdown