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The North American P-51 Mustang
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P-51 Who?   Case # 279
A68-119     VH-IVI     Closed
Solved by: Ron Dredge
P-51 Who 279
Case#: 279
Date: May 06 2005
By: Dick Phillips
Photo:
Status: Closed
Serial: A68-119
Registry: VH-IVI
P-51 Who? Viewer Responses
Ron Dredge
05/07/2005 18:14
VH-IVI ex RAAF serial No. A68-119 a CAC built Mk 21 aircraft photographed at camden airshow N.S.W. Australia October 1971. Owned and operated by R.J Whitbread from 1970 the aircraft was used for business and pleasure.Unfortunately on the 11/6/73 whilst flying over windsor N.S.W. the aircraft crashed killing Mr Whitbread and totally destroying the aircraft.
black
12/07/2016 17:34
I knew RJ personally ...he had a smash repair shop at one end of the long Heathcote Road....and my brother and I had a smash shop at the other end..our two company tow trucks... were always arriving at the same car crashes..and we both flew from Bankstown..RJ's mustang was a simply beautiful restoration...sad to to see him go like that..I think he said he spent $70,000 to restore it..in about 1970ish...when you could buy a house for $15,000
black
12/07/2016 18:16
I found this online....
.....I sold A68-119 to a Sydney businessman, Ray Whitbread. He flew her to Bankstown (Sydney) on 1 September 1970 where she was extensively overhauled and repainted. On 11 June 1973 he was
killed in her in a crash near Windsor NSW when, according to the Aviation Safety Network of the Flight Safety Foundation,2
the canopy detached and struck him in the head. My recollection is
different. I believe Ray was practising aerobatics for an air show at 8,000 feet doing vertical eight point upward rolls until the aircraft stalls. At that point the control surfaces must be centred or the
aircraft will fall inverted, which requires 17,000 feet to recover from. Ray had undone his seat belts and jettisoned the canopy to bale out but did not have time. The canopy was the largest piece to
survive the accident and is still in existence.
Langdon Badger
Mike Milln
July 2016
black
12/07/2016 18:30
Heres a more complete story and many more pictures of RJ's plane
....Black

http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac1/austcl/VH-IVI.html
black
12/07/2016 21:33
further site with more info and more nice pics of RJ's plane
....black

https://jimsaerophotos.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/mustang-vh-ivi/
black
12/07/2016 21:36
and more...
RJ was well known and quite famous..

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p51registry/ca18-a68119.html
Paul MacRae
05/22/2018 02:31
On the day of the accident I was on the side of the road watching the Mustang doing aerobatics, I was very close as I watched it dive vertically into the ground. I was the first on the seine and I remember that the crash site was an almost circular disruption of the soil as if it had been ploughed , there was no sign of the aircraft at all it was all underground the only part was the canopy some distance away. To this day it still haunts me.
Robert Hawkins
07/31/2019 06:14
I was a Police Officer at Windsor on that day. I was watching the aerobatics of this plane from the front steps of the PS, my boss, the Sergeant on the shift was an Ex-RAAF officer and later joined the NSW Police. The plane was very noisy and we could hear it about 2.0 miles away. I heard it going into another dive, then silence. I said to the Sgt, I can't hear the plane and as soon as I said it, the phone rang and informed me of the situation. We drove to the location and arrived about 6-7 mins after the accident. At the scene was a large hole with small bits of metal scattered around the inside of the crater. My boss told me to go into the hole and try and find fuel tanks intact, which was negative. I did find human remains which I will not describe on here. We stayed at the site till the Aviation authorities arrived and we returned to the PS.
Rod
01/05/2020 18:50
I was a 10 year old on the day. I was with my family in Windsor about to head into a Chinese restaurant for lunch. We stood out the front for a moment watching this aircraft high in the sky. After a while when we were seated inside we heard an almighty loud scream of an engine revving, then silence. Not knowing what the noise was we carried on only to find out that night back home on the news, the plane had crashed.
Frank Wilson
06/22/2020 08:38
I was the Duty Air Movements Officer at Richmond that day, and my Sergeant and I went out with the RAAF Fire Truck to the incident. We couldn't get too close because of the proximity of the incident to the chemical works.

It was the worst thing that I ever saw.
Steven and Kevin Lewis
05/02/2022 17:08
We lived on Ham Street South Windsor where Bligh Park Tavern is now days just down the Road from where the Mustang smashed, we were at Richmond the day of this accident, the next day my brother and I (8 and 9 year old) went up the road and inspected the crash site and found fragments of the Aircraft, we were told it had disintegrated, it was about half a kilometre from our place.
Case Closed!
P-51 Mustang

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