Pinelanders have long been concerned about low-flying aircraft. Their fears were confirmed on a mid-afternoon Monday, 26 November 1956.
Regina Barten and Marie Roe, both aged 10 years, had often played together on the wide grassed island between Morningside and Avonduur, adjacent to Julianaveld.
While they played Regina had noticed a Venture Bomber, used for training, flying very low over Pinelands and Maitland. Later Regina noticed the aircraft coming closer, but Marie was unconcerned until the aircraft hit a tree and came crashing toward them.
The bomber, after knocking the tree, hit an electric standard on the corner of Sunrise and Avonduur and onto the island where it missed the two friends by about 5 metres.
Continuing its journey, the plane gouged a path across Morningside where it snapped another electric standard on the pavement which in turn cased a third standard to collapse.
It finally came to rest on the far side of Julianaveld near the houses in Julianaveld South.
The pilots clambered out of the aircraft unharmed and although they seemed dazed, they calmly walked to 13 Julianaveld where they phoned Ysterplaat.
According to the pilots the problem arose when one of their engines failed.
Julianaveld was the only open space they could find.
The bomber itself was badly damaged with its fuselage snapped almost in two and looped in electrical wires from the second electrical standard. A section of its wing had been left behind, crumpled around the first standard it hit.
Two days later the Minister of Defence said that two engines had failed and that the pilots had put up a creditable performance under difficult circumstances.
The Town Council was not impressed and demanded that the training ground at Ysterplaat as well as the use of obsolete aircraft be transferred elsewhere - Needless to say, this request was ignored. (text obtained from B Watkyns)
.....and the story goes.....
" I remember walking home from primary school one sunny afternoon, and two other school kids running like crazy toward me on the sidewalk, obviously rushing to tell their mothers what they had just seen, and they screamed to me, "There's a plane crashed on Juliana Veld, s'trues God, s'trues God!". Whereupon I ran home and to my amazement, saw the aircraft on the field.
My mom told me that as the Ventura came down, it snagged some of the overhead electric cables along the street, which caused many of the surrounding light poles to bend, even those near our house, all creating an eerie sound!
She described how the aircraft landed in the field in a cloud of dust and then to her relief, she saw the hatch sliding back and the crew emerging"
(as told by Mike, now in Texas) & photos by Etienne Du Plessis