A Short Empire flying boat airliner, Corio, operated by Qantas was shot down by Japanese aircraft off the coast of West Timor, Dutch East Indies, on 30 January 1942, killing 13 of the occupants.

(Aub) Koch, left Darwin at dawn, for Kupang, West Timor, en route to Surabaya, where it was to pick up refugees from the Japanese invasion of Java and transport them to Australia.

[2] When it was 13 nmi (24 km) from West Timor, travelling at a height of 400 ft (120 m), Corio was fired on by seven Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters.

Following a sudden loss of power when two engines caught fire, Corio hit the sea at high speed, nose first,[3] 3 nmi (5.6 km) from the mouth of the Noelmini River; the impact breaking the fuselage in half.

[6] On 22 April 1943, Koch was piloting Camilla, another Qantas Short Empire, on a flight from Australia to New Guinea, when it crashed in the sea off Port Moresby in bad weather.