A memorial was unveiled on Saturday to honor the victims of one of Australia’s deadliest peacetime aviation disasters, marking the 75th anniversary of the crash that killed all aboard. On June 26, 1950, the Australian National Airlines Douglas DC-4 Amana took off from Perth, bound for Melbourne with a stop in Adelaide. Just 10 minutes into the flight, the aircraft crashed into bushland near York, approximately 100 kilometers east of Perth. Emergency responders arrived quickly, but all 28 crew members and passengers were found deceased at the scene. The only survivor succumbed to injuries in the hospital days later.

The memorial features a replica of the aircraft and a plaque made from stone recovered from the crash site. Diana Iles, who was six years old at the time of the tragedy, recalled the moment she learned of her father’s death. Vincent Finegan, a 37-year-old electrical engineer, was returning home to Sydney after a work trip in Perth. "I was totally shocked because I couldn't understand where my father was," Iles said. She remembered asking the woman who delivered the news if her father had been carried by an angel to heaven, to which the woman replied, "Yes."

Iles shared that her father had altered his travel plans to return home early for her birthday. "It was just misfortune that he caught that plane when he did," she said. For many years, Iles struggled to comprehend the crash and its impact on her life. It wasn’t until she connected with the descendants of other victims and local historians that she began to understand the tragedy more deeply.

"I did not realize at the time that I was grieving my father and I continued to grieve him for most of my life," Iles said. To cope with her loss, she traveled to Western Australia to visit places significant to her father's death. During her visit to York, she met Colin McNamara, one of the first responders to the crash, and learned more about the incident.

At 81 years old, Iles expressed a sense of connection to York, despite having lived her entire life in New South Wales. "In a way, it's kind of opportune although that sounds a strange word to use, because I was born in Yorkshire in England, where York is named after," she said. Meeting the descendants of other victims has provided her with comfort. "They are the only people who understand what my family went through," Iles noted.

This memorial serves as a poignant reminder of the tragedy, which remains one of the most significant aviation disasters in Australian history. Another notable disaster occurred in 1960, when a Trans Australia Airlines flight crashed off the coast of Queensland, resulting in the deaths of 29 people.