Four men killed in a plane crash off Lady Julia Percy Island have been remembered 80 years on.
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00:00 So on the 15th of February 1944 an Avery Anson of number two air
00:05 observer service school took off from Mount Gambier at 0800 to carry out a navigational exercise.
00:13 They were to fly from Mount Gambier to Douglas Point and then to Lady Julia Percy Island
00:20 returning home to Mount Gambier. Endeavours were made to contact the aircraft at 0830
00:27 but were unsuccessful. When the aircraft was not returned to base by 1230 overdue signals were sent.
00:35 At 1300 a search was carried out over the route of the exercise
00:40 where wreckage was sighted on Lady Julia Percy Island at 1430. The following morning a further
00:48 search by boats was conducted which resulted in the wreckage, sorry the recovery of some
00:53 wreckage including larger parts of the aircraft. The bodies of four crew members were never located.
01:01 Those crew members who have lost their lives in this tragic accident were as follows.
01:07 The pilot flight sergeant James Henry Mckellen 26 from Victoria. The instructor
01:16 flight sergeant Dennis Leslie Balderstone 22 from South Australia.
01:22 The leading aircraftman Norman Thomas Crutt 19 from Queensland.
01:30 And leading aircraftman Ryan Carter Ladyman 19 from WA.
01:39 you
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