Shipwreck Databases Western Australian Museum

Learmonth's Beaufort Bomber

Author/s P. Balalas

Year of publication 2002

Report Number: 183

AbstractAfter becoming aware of the story of the loss of WCDR Charles Leannonth's Beaufort bomber as a result of fieldwork then being conducted by the Department of Maritime Archaeology at the Western Australian Maritime Museum at a site originally believed to be that of the bomber, the author elected to undertake detailed research into the loss with a view to narrowing the search area In advising the Museum staff of this intention , the author was then invited to consider extending the research into a more comprehensive document of which this report is the result.The report covers a brief history of the Beaufort bombers which were built in Australia, as well as some of the backgrolmd of the crew who were Jcilled in the crash. It then moves on to retrace the incident and the subsequent Court of lnquiry which determined the probable cause of the crash.A discussion of the determination of the location of the crash site using the available information, suggested search methodology and discussions of the likely problems and issues to be dealt with are covered.