The Kokoda air tragedy & memories of others

PNG Attitude has not been providing coverage of the Twin Otter crash near Kokoda, which has claimed 13 lives, because the tragedy has been so exhaustively and capably reported by other media.

Nonetheless, as I'm sure it did for many of you, the crash brought back for me a host of memories of other air crashes and incidents.

There were many, they were regular and they often affected us deeply because we knew one of other of the victims.

Occasionally there would be survivors. A badly burned Kevin Difflo was fortunate to get out of a Twin Otter that crashed while attempting to land near Kainantu. And Fred Kaad escaped with his life, although a paraplegic, from a light plane accident in the Morobe.

Many others were not as lucky. MAF pilot Fr Joe Walachy and his passengers perished in frightful weather in the Bundi Gap when their plane hit a sheer cliff that Joe thought was blue sky. And education executive John Lee and others died when an overloaded Baron crashed after taking off from Gurney.

Returning to PNG on the Electra after my first leave (it must have been early 1965), I sat beside a sad young man. He was going to Moresby to reclaim the body of his brother, who with a fellow Qantas cadet had, in heavy cloud, flown his aircraft into a rocky outcrop between Madang and Goroka.

I recall TAL captain Brian McCook telling me he always flew with the thought in mind that he may be forced to land somewhere. It was always comforting to fly with McCook.

I remember too, with knuckles white still, circling in and out of mist while the driver of the Cessna 180 tried to find a hole in the cloud that would get us to the Bena for a safe landing at Goroka, never taking his eyes off the altimeter and the turn and bank indicator.

It comes flooding back. This and much more.

Flying in PNG can never be taken for granted. It is a daunting country for aviators. The terrain, the weather, the precipitous and rough bush airstrips, the lack of navigation aids. They all contribute to danger.

Our thoughts and sympathy go out to the relatives and friends of the people who died near Kokoda this week.

Comments

[Rick Absolon]

Airlines PNG (Milne Bay Air) had another Twin Otter crash at Gurney, killing 15.

The company said a passenger had bought kerosene on to the flight in their baggage. A lie.

The inverters (115/26v AC power source), located aft of the baggage hold, had been known to be giving trouble for several months.

Because MBA did not have a maintenance base at Gurney, the problem persisted until the inverters finally caught fire (after four attempts to start the engines).

Inverters provide power to start the engines and many of the instruments, including the AH and DG (artificial horizon and directional gyro).

If you lose these instruments on take-off and happen to enter solid cloud at the same time, Biggles couldn't save you. And that's what happened.

Witnesses saw the aircraft pitching wildly and eventually go inverted before impacting the ground.

Pictures (front page of the 'Post Courier') show severe scorching on the aircraft skin exactly externally from the inverters.

If there had been kerosene in the baggage hold, the fire would have been in there. There was no sign of fire in the baggage hold. APNG got away with murder.

The manager who forced Jenny Moala to depart for Kokoda has quietly left APNG and is now with Air Nogot. The Australian Transport Safety Board (ATSB) still haven't interviewed a critical witness now living in Samoa (but that's another story).

I can't reveal all the facts here, but I expect a class action by the victims' families will happen once the facts come out in the coronial inquiry.

[Bruce Copeland]

Report on the aircraft engines sent to Canada: It is now the year 2039 and most of the families of the deceased are now old and some have died.

And so it came to pass that the long awaited report came back. And it did confirm what we all long suspected.

The engines were indeed from the aircraft that crashed in Eora Creek Gorge in 2009. The aircraft was travelling at speed in a downward trajectory at the time of the impact.

The engines did indeed hit the ground. The impact caused the engines to stop.

Blind Joey could have written this report if given a carton of booze and a packet of smokes.

[Bruce Copeland]

I am amazed that the report to the investigation has taken
so long. Why had the engines been sent to Canada?

It seems to be a delaying tactic. What is so complex about
an aircraft hitting the ridgeline of a gorge?

Is the possibility there that the engines stopped before the
aircraft hit the ground? It was rainy, cloudy and windy in
the whole area including the gorge. And the pilot decided
to short cut up a cloudy and foggy gorge.

Such an investigation is hardly rocket science. Were there
witnesses on the ground? from Abuari village? or from
Isurava village? or is that all confidential? If so, why so?

[Rick Absolon]

You might think twice about flying with Airlines of PNG if you knew the Pilot (Jenny Moala) was seen to be sick before the flight and was forced to depart even though Grace (APNG's Kokoda agent, whose husband died in the crash) had told APNG operations not to send the aircraft as the weather was bad.

[Richard E Jones]

Bendigo boy Peter Holliday will be laid to rest in hls home city tomorrow (Friday 29 August).

His body was returned home Wednesday along with those of the eight other Australians killed earlier this month when an Airlines PNG flight crashed in the Owen Stanleys.

The aircraft carrying the bodies landed in Brisbane first, then flew on to Melbourne.

As well as Mr Holliday, Bendigo-based health worker Kelly Weire, an occupational therapist, was also on the ill-fated flight.

Holliday family spokesman Keith Sutherland, well known in Bendigo real estate circles, said a representative was on hand to bring Peter's body back from Melbourne to central Victoria.

Mr Sutherland said he, Mr Holliday's wife Shonia and her family had made an emotional visit to Port Moresby.

"We went up there on Monday knowing full well that the bodies were coming back," Mr Sutherland said.

"There's no closure and there's no forgetting, but it was something she sort of had to do.

"Going there and going to the hotel where Peter spent his last night was important to Shonia," he said.

Mr Sutherland said the family had nothing but praise for the Federal Government.

"The unbelievable effort that has been put in from the defence force to Centrelink personnel who were up there to help and support us," Mr Sutherland added.

"We are so lucky being Australian, because I don't believe too many countries would throw the resources (at our concerns) that our Government has put in.

"We criticise governments .... but this has been an outstanding effort."

Mr Sutherland said Shonia received daily briefings from authorities.

"And [Foreign Affairs Minister] Stephen Smith himself personally rang on the Tuesday [after the crash] just to confirm that the plane was missing."

[Richard E Jones]

Last Saturday night the Peter Holliday tribute match was played at Kangaroo Flat's Fulton Hogan Oval.

The Flat was hosting rival Bendigo Football League club Maryborough in the last match of the 18-round home and away season.

Peter Holliday had played 77 games with Kangaroo Flat and a further 11 for district league club Newbridge.

Mr Holiday died in the Kokoda plane crash. He was just 28.
More than $4000 was raised on the night for Peter and Shonia Holliday's two sons: Smith, 2, and Miller, six months.

Kangaroo Flat and Maryborough players lined up before the start of the senior match as the crowd stood for a minute's silence.

The match served as the first in a series of fund-raisers for the Holliday family.

The player judged best afield was awarded the Peter Holliday medal. A memorial plaque was presented to the Holliday family.

Kangaroo Flat Football and Netball Club president Paul Brooks said the game was a fitting tribute to Mr Holliday as his family had a long connection with the club.

"Not only Peter but his Dad played here. Peter himself had played all his junior footy at Kangaroo Flat."

Representatives of the Western Bulldogs, Peter's beloved AFL club, presented a signed Bulldogs' jumper to Ms Holliday.

A goods and services auction will be held at Bendigo's Schweppes Centre - home to the Bendigo Braves basketball club - on September 18 to raise funds for the Peter Holliday Appeal.

[Pat Dwyer]

The recent news coverage of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels and the Kokoda air crash tragedy has jogged the old memory cells.

In late 1959 ADO Ken Brown sent me and Cadet Patrol Officer Chris Warrilow to the Bereina-Waima-Kivori area to recruit half a dozen ex Kokoda Track carriers.

They were to be flown to Kokoda to take part in a ceremony to dedicate a memorial to the carriers. The memorial was the work of planter Bert Kienzle who had been the Angau OIC of the carriers and stretcher bearers during the Kokoda Track battles.

We were surprised to get no volunteers. The excuses were, “We are too old. Send some young blokes”, “We have done our bit for the war effort. Send someone else.” I explained that they were going, not to war but to take part in a thank you ceremony and to have a feed of roast beef.

One village man said, “You can’t trick me again. The last time I signed up to tap rubber at Itikinumu but ended up carrying bombs and being shot at. I ran away but when I got home the police took me to Major Thompson who bent me over a hot 44 gallon drum and Leo Aitsi Parau (ex Kiap Jack Edwards father in law) belted me."

Eventually we had two takers, one of whom was the Hanua Policeman from (I think) Hauramiri Village. Their wives cried and asked who would make the gardens if their men died in the war. I said that Chris and I would do the gardening if need be.

When I related this joke to Ken Brown he said, “You are an idiot. If the plane crashes and the two men don’t come back, you and Warrilow will spend the next 21 months sleeping under canvas at Hauramiri and will, under supervision of the Agricultural Officers at Bereima, establish a model village garden.”

The men came back and Chris and I never did become Cadet Agricultural Officers.

[Andrea Williams]

This evening I have put the following note on the PNGAA forum at: http://pngaa.net/bb/viewtopic.php?p=360#360

ABC's Foreign Correspondent has a segment on aviation in PNG scheduled for 8pm Tuesday 18 August 2009.

The program summary tells us: "Last year we flew PNG's dangerous skies to expose the flaws in the system, and a government that didn't want to know. That official blind eye left deaths unanswered. Now as more families mourn has anything changed?"

[Robin Mead]

It is amazing how body memory works. In thinking about the sad recent events, one can be transported with a hollow feeling in one's stomach to similar events in times long gone.

Yes, it seems an almost inevitable thing that sometimes these things will happen in such an operating environment. So different to Australia, with its relatively modest peaks such as Kosciuszko (c.7,300 feet) and Bartle Frere which at 5,300 feet is approximately the same elevation as Goroka - or the site of the recent accident.

Such varied and extreme topography, associated with highly localised and rapidly changeable weather, too frequently becoming marginal, never to be taken lightly, a routine flight can become nerve-wracking or worse.

I knew people who were taken by aircraft accidents; one particular scenario involved dealing with the chaotic consequences of a fatal air crash in a remote location: local officials, grieving and hysterical bereaved relatives, and the poor victims including a pilot I had flown with just weeks earlier.

And apart from anything, the terrible sense of waste and powerlessness. For everybody. There, but for chance or grace, go or goes any of us.

Whatever may be said by the press or the politicians, let us hope that perhaps there can be some helpful learnings. And remember our common humanity.

[Maxwell R Hayes]

Letter to the Editor of the Melbourne Age
___________________________________

However tragic for those killed in the Kokoda Otter crash and their surviving families, it does not seem to me appropriate for the House of Representatives, led by Prime Minister Rudd, to stand for a minute's silence.

Reasons for various groups and individuals making this iconic popular and difficult trek are many: often personal closure for a distant relative who served or died on this track, perhaps for personal motivational reasons or to proclaim that "they have done it"

It would seem that our Prime Minister could better lead the House by making a more appropriate gesture to the gallantry of those dying in our defences forces serving in Afghanistan.

These are the truly inspirational members who have had their lives taken for their service to Australia, leaving grieving families at home, and not a group of tourists on a personal holiday.

If Australians wish to take an equally important trek honouring 160 Australian soldiers captured in the fall of New Britain at Rabaul (now Papua New Guinea) and bayonetted in February 1942 by their Japanese captors, I suggest they contemplate the overland trek from Rabaul to Tol plantation where this massacre occurred.

[John Ellee]

My heartfelt and sincere condolences to families of all the victims both in Australia and PNG as well as the families of the Asian victim. It is a tragic air disaster in PNG.

[Paul Oates]

Your right Keith. This latest air crash brings back a lot of memories and not all of them good.

Every sympathy should be extended to the families of the victims. Some thought should also be given to those who have unenviable task of going in and investigating the crash site.

The role of the local people is very often
overlooked. I wonder if the media ever give that a thought when they have a 'feeding frenzy' on the disaster but then quickly lose interest in what some have to do afterwards.

The concentration on the crash and the victims and their family's subsequent grief is almost macabre and borders on the sensational, an aspect some have already commented on when media coverage of PNG is concerned.

Flying in PNG should never be taken for granted. The number of times I have left my fingerprints in the aluminium seat frames of small planes in PNG is too numerous to mention.

Isn't it amazing that now PNG is a separate and sovereign country, the amount of assistance being offered to help with this exercise seems to dwarf any provided to us when TPNG was an Australian Territory.

We had to cope with similar situations, often with limited assistance from Australia, who had very little idea of our role and it sadly appears, still don't, if the recent Government reticence in supporting Chris Viner-Smith's long, hard slog and yourself in obtaining some recognition for former kiaps.

[Mari Ellingson]

So sorry. Me too.

[Diane Bohlen]

Me too!