On 31 January 1945 a Stinson Model A aircraft departed from Melbourne for a flight of to Kerang, Victoria—the first leg of an Australian National Airways regular scheduled service to Broken Hill, New South Wales. It crashed from Melbourne. All ten occupants were killed in the accident. The aircraft was one of four Stinsons imported in 1936 by Airlines of Australia (AoA). Three had now crashed with the loss of 17 lives, and the fourth would not be permitted to fly again. It was determined that the accident was caused by a fatigue crack in the main spar of the left wing that caused the outer part of the left wing, outboard of the engine nacelle, to separate from the remainder of the aircraft. The expert panel investigating the accident believed this to be the first fatal aircraft accident anywhere in the world directly attributable to metal fatigue. The accident and related matters were investigated by a Supreme Court judge who also found that the aircraft's left wing failed in flight due to a fatigue crack. The judge made five recommendations including one that a safe flying life should be fixed for each metal aircraft registered in Australia to avoid further failures due to metal fatigue. This practice is now called safe-lifeing. The flight The aircraft was a modified Stinson Model A registered VH-UYY and operated by Australian National Airways (ANA) as the Tokana. On 31 January 1945 the Tokana departed from Melbourne's Essendon Airport at 7:55 am local time for a flight to Broken Hill, stopping at Kerang and Mildura. On board were two pilots and eight passengers. A strong and gusting wind was blowing from the south-west and the sky was mostly overcast with the base of the clouds about above sea level. About 20 minutes after takeoff the aircraft was approaching Redesdale and several people observed it flying about above ground level, just below the cloud base. Several witnesses reported hearing a sharp crack followed by cessation of noise from the engines. When they looked up they saw the Stinson spiralling downwards. Part of one wing had separated from the remainder of the aircraft and it was drifting slowly towards the ground. As they watched, they saw the whole tail assembly break free from the fuselage. Moments later the wreckage struck the ground and a pall of black smoke rose into the air. Part of the left