Remembering the Friendship crash. The enduring mystery of Australia’s worst air disaster
Richard Dinnen - Queensland Editor |
In Mackay today, the town’s oldest registered touch footy player, Lyall Ford, is remembering his cousin, Stuart Jackson.
Further south, people reflect at a memorial in Rockhampton Grammar School, where Stuart was a boarder in 1960.
Stuart and eight of his schoolmates, were among 29 people killed in what remains Australia’s worst civilian aircraft crash, 62 years ago tonight.
At about 10pm, on June 10, 1960, an almost new aircraft was gently descending towards Mackay airport. It flew into the sea. We still don’t know why.
Mr Ford said he has strong memories of his cousin.
“I remember Stuart very well. Our whole family was very close. I remember the night very well.”
The boys were flying home for a long weekend, a special treat instead of the usual road journey. They were on Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) flight 538, from Brisbane, via Maryborough and Rockhampton.
It was an almost new aircraft, a Fokker F-27, the first of its kind in Australia, introduced with great fanfare in 1959. It was registered VH-TFB and named for Dutch explorer Abel Tasman.
The flight arrived over Mackay to find fog and poor visibility had closed the airport.
In consultation with air traffic control, Captain Frank Pollard decided to fly a holding pattern nearby, waiting for the fog to lift.
The crew made two unsuccessful attempts to land and continued to hold overhead for more than an hour. Mr Ford said some on the ground began to worry.
“Stuart’s father, Cyril, had phoned the airport, saying for goodness’ sake, tell that plane to go back.
“But they told him they’re circling out over the ocean, they’ll be right.”
The flight was eventually cleared to land around 10pm. It never arrived.
Wreckage was found a few hours later, nine kilometres from the airport.
Radio exchanges had been normal. There was no distress call. The aircraft was intact and under control. It had descended into the sea.
At Rockhampton Grammar School, one of the items recovered from the sea now hangs, framed, on the wall of the Long Room.
Headmaster Phillip Moulds said the school blazer of student Edgar Dowse is a very personal reminder of the tragic loss of life.
“The impact on the students, staff and broader Rockhampton and Mackay communities was immense.
“The aftermath of this event and the grief remains in the heart of the school and our past students and staff.”
Australians came to know the Fokker F-27 as the Friendship. It would become one of Australian aviation’s most successful types, operating fast, safe, comfortable flights to rural and regional areas for more than 30 years.
But the cause of the crash of the very first one to fly here remains a mystery.
Commonwealth judge Sir John Spicer led the inquiry. Without information from onboard the aircraft, it could not determine a probable cause.
But the tragedy led to a major air safety breakthrough.
Justice Spicer recommended flight voice and data recorders be carried on passenger flights. They’d been available for several years, but the aviation industry had resisted them.
In 1961, Australia became the first country to mandate the carriage of flight recorders on civil transport aircraft.
