On the evening of 2nd of July 1963, Pacific Chieftain was moored overnight – just south of Blackburn Island – when a gale snapped its mooring and the aircraft was washed up near Windy Point.
Although the port wing float was broken off, the aircraft was able to be re-floated, and was subsequently moored in Sylph’s Hole – and kept upright by sandbags weighting the wing over the good float.
However, further cyclonic weather caused the heavily weighted starboard float to collapse.
The wing then dipped deep into Syph’s Hole, and the aircraft was judged to be a write-off.
Pacific Chieftain was dragged up onto Old Settlement Beach so that everything of value could be stripped from it. In a sad ending, it was finally towed out beyond the reef and scuttled.
Extract from ‘Recent Visit to Lord Howe by former LHICS pupil, Paul Shields’.
This article appeared in The Lord Howe Island Signal, 30 November 2022.
