Beautiful Betsy

Beautiful Betsy

Wreckage of the B-24D Liberator Bomber, 1996
Occurrence summary
Date	26 February 1945
Site	Australia
Crew	6
Fatalities	8
Aircraft type	B-24D Liberator
Operator	United States Army Air Force
Flight origin	Fenton Airfield, Darwin
Destination	Eagle Farm Airfield, Brisbane

Beautiful Betsy was the name of an American Liberator Bomber. The wreckage of the plane was discovered in what is now Kroombit Tops National Park, located in The Boyne Valley in central Queensland, Australia.

Contents 1 Fact sheet 2 Background and mission 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

Fact sheet

• B-24D-53 "Beautiful Betsy" Serial Number 42-40387
• MIA 26 February 1945
• MACR 12758
• Discovered 2 August 1994

Background and mission

The Beautiful Betsy had suffered combat fatigue and was only being used for short supply runs. It had been retired from combat. Its final mission was a Fat Cat run from Darwin to Brisbane - transporting men and supplies as part of a regular flight. It disappeared in stormy weather. The B-24D Liberator - Beautiful Betsy was in service with the Royal Australian Air Force from February 1944 until 1947.

Those killed in the crash were:

• 1st Lieutenant William Emmett McDaniel - pilot
• 2nd Lieutenant Eugene A. Kilcheski,
• 2nd Lieutenant Hilary E. Routt
• Lieutenant Raymond L. Owen
• Technical Sergeant Raymond L. Tucker
• Technical Sergeant Harold J. Lemons.

• Flight Lieutenant Thomas John Donald Cook - British Spitfire pilot
• Flying Officer Roy Albert Arthur Cannon - British Spitfire pilot

See also

• Kroombit Tops National Park
• The Boyne Valley

References

• Tocumwal to Tarakan : Australians and the Consolidated B-24 Liberator

External links

• Beautiful Betsy - Kroombit Tops National Park
• B-24D-53 "Beautiful Betsy" Serial Number 42-40387
• Beautiful Betsy - A B24 Liberator
• Crash of a B-24D Liberator

← 1944 Aviation accidents and incidents in 1945 (1945) 1946 →     Jan 08  Pan Am Flight 161 Feb 26  B-24 "Beautiful Betsy" Jun 13  Fairy Lochs B-24 crash Jul 12  Eastern Airlines Flight 45 Jul 28  B-25 Empire State Building crash Aug 18  Subhas Chandra Bose crash Oct 05  National Airlines Flight 16 Nov 03  Honolulu Clipper forced landing Dec 06  Flight 19 Incidents resulting in at least 50 deaths shown in italics     Deadliest incident shown in bold smallcaps

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