A re-examination at the first air fatality in Western Australia
On Monday, 28 March 1921, pioneering aviator and newly licensed pilot and barnstormer Lieutenant John Cowe McIntosh, Air Force Cross (AFC), was conducting his second joy flight in the late afternoon at Pithara, Western Australia, flying an Avro 504J biplane. McIntosh occupied the pilot’s seat in the open front cockpit. His two passengers sat in the Avro’s modified side-by-side passenger seats in the open rear  cockpit. Shortly after take-off, the Avro began a turn, the nose dropped, and the aircraft struck the ground almost inverted. McIntosh and Mr Alfred Joy (one of his two passengers) were fatally injured.