PK-AFV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
PK-AFV, previously PH-ALP, and also known as Pelikaan, was a Douglas DC-3 (Dakota) airliner operated by KLM from 1937 to 1942. On March 3, 1942 while on a flight from Bandung, in the Netherlands East Indies, to Broome, Australia, it was attacked by Japanese fighter planes; PK-AFV crash-landed near Broome. Four passengers were killed. Among its cargo were diamonds worth at the time an estimated £150,000-300,000 (now an approximate A$20-40 million), and most of these were lost or stolen following the crash.
The plane was manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company, and first flew on August 1937. It was delivered to KLM on August 25, was initially registered as PH-ALP, and was based in the Netherlands. On May 10, 1940, as PH-ALP was on route to Asia, Nazi forces invaded the Netherlands. The plane was transferred to KLM's Asian subsidiary, Royal Netherlands Indies Airways (KNILM) and was re-registered as PK-AFV.
On March 3, 1942, the pilot of PK-AFV was a Russian World War I ace, Ivan Smirnov (or Smirnoff). He, with another two crew members, were transporting nine refugees, fleeing the Japanese invasion of Java. Smirnov been handed a package containing the diamonds by a KLM staffer — who instructed him to hand it to a representative of the Commonwealth Bank in Broome — shortly before leaving Bandung. Smirnov was reportedly unaware of its contents.
At about 10.30am, as the DC-3 neared Broome, three Mitsubishi Zeroes — led by the Japanese ace Lt Zenjiro Miyano — were returning to their base in Timor, following the first air raid on Broome. Smirnov was following the coastline towards Broome. The Japanese pilots, who were at a higher altitude than the DC-3, dived at it and fired at its port side. Smirnov was wounded in his arms and hip, but managed to put his plane into a steep spiral dive. With the port engine on fire, and fearing that a wheels-down landing on soft sand would cause the plane to roll or flip over, Smirnov opted for a beach crash-landing, terminating in the shallow surf. He achieved this at Carnot Bay, 80 km (50 mi) north of Broome.
The Zeroes then strafed the DC-3. Four passengers, including a baby, were killed outright or were seriously injured by bullets. Smirnov reported that he dropped the package of diamonds in the surf. The following day, as the survivors awaited a rescue party, a Japanese Kawanishi H6K flying boat spotted the wreck and dropped two bombs near them. The Kawanishi later returned and dropped another two bombs. None of the bombs caused any damage or injuries.
Just over £20,000 worth of diamonds were recovered.
In May 1943, a Broome mariner named Jack Palmer and two associates, James Mulgrue and Frank Robinson, were tried and acquitted for theft of the diamonds, in the Supreme Court of Western Australia in Perth. No other person has been tried for the loss of the diamonds.
[edit] References
Juliet Wills, 2006. Diamond Dakota Mystery, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest (ISBN 978-1-74114-745-2).
William H. Tyler, 1987. Flight of Diamonds: the Story of Broome's War and the Carnot Bay Diamonds, Hesperian Press, Perth (ISBN 0-85905-105-6).
