CAC Wirraway – Aviation Historical Society of Australia

DerekB30/11/202223/11/2024

Australian aviation history digital archive

In its mission to preserve and promote Australia's aviation heritage, the AHSA hosts the following digital archives. Click on the image to go to...

DerekB27/04/202204/06/2023

The Aircraft Projects of Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation

This new book by author and AHSA member Joe Vella has just been published (April 2022). Joe began writing this book in 1983 when...

DerekB29/09/202027/12/2022

Australian-built Aircraft and the Industry (Vol 2) by Keith Meggs

The latest book released by author Keith Meggs Volume 2 of this encyclopaedic work (containing only one chapter, being chapter 15, spread across two...

DerekB16/09/202027/12/2022

AHSA Monthly Meeting 16 Sep 2020 (Derek Buckmaster: The Wirraway “Newspaper War”)

Derek Buckmaster gave a presentation on The Wirraway "Newspaper War". The AHSA September monthly meeting was held online via Zoom. A recording of the...

Cover - CAC Ceres by Derek Buckmaster

DerekB08/06/202027/12/2022

CAC Ceres – Australia’s Heavyweight Cropduster by Derek Buckmaster

The Ceres agricultural aircraft was produced by Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) in Australia from 1959 to 1963. A total of only 20 airframes were...

1987 Cessna 402C VH-WBQ crashed at Bundaberg Airport, Queensland on 21 June 1987. The flight had been arranged to transport a critically injured patient to hospital in Brisbane. The pilot evidently experienced some difficulty in starting one of the engines. However, witnesses reported that the engines sounded normal as the aircraft commenced moving from the parking area. At 0310 hours the pilot contacted Brisbane Flight Service Unit and reported that the aircraft was taxying. He advised that he was in a hurry, and indicated that he would provide details of the flight after takeoff. Two minutes later he advised that takeoff was being commenced from Runway 14. No further transmissions were received from the aircraft. The aircraft was seen to become airborne and shortly afterwards enter a fog bank. Other witnesses subsequently reported hearing the sounds of an impact. The investigation revealed that the aircraft had collided with a tree 800 metres beyond the aerodrome boundary, while tracking about 10 degrees to the right of the extended centreline of the runway. It had then continued on the same heading until striking the ground 177 metres beyond the initial impact point. The wreckage was almost totally consumed by fire. There were 4 fatalities and one survivor. Sources: ATSB; aviation-safety.net website

2000 CASA announced a rewriting of aviation maintenance regulations which would later take place over a four-year period on 21 June 2000. Subsequent introduction of regulatory changes proved controversial and not always successful, according to reports. Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 22 June 2000. via aph.gov.au website

2007 A Jetstar A320 aircraft made two missed approaches while trying to land in foggy conditions at Melbourne Airport on 21 June 2007. The event was not fully revealed until media coverage much later and raised matters of airline management, regulatory surveillance and safety training. Source: M O'Sullivan, ‘Jetstar captain's safety concern’, The Age, 15 November 2010 and B Sandilands, ‘Plane Talking: how Jetstar came close to disaster in 2007’, Crikey website, 5 March 2010. via aph.gov.au website

2010 A report was released on 21 June 2010 that reviewed the implications for flight crews on the copying or disclosing of cockpit voice recorder information, pursuant to section 4 of the Aviation Legislation Amendment (2008 Measures No. 2) Act 2009. Source: Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Privacy and cockpit voice recorder information, a report to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, The Commissioner, Canberra, 2010. via aph.gov.au website