Duigan Memorial Lecture – Aviation Historical Society of Australia

DerekB26/10/202526/10/2025

2025 Duigan Memorial Lecture – Michael Smith

The Aviation Historical Society of Australia is pleased to announce the 2025 Duigan Memorial Lecture, to be held at the Duigan Centre, Brighton Grammar...

DerekB30/12/202431/12/2024

Outlook AHSA Newsletter December 2024

The December 2024 edition of Outlook / AHSA News was distributed to members recently. This edition can be read online in the viewer below....

1947 The first flight of the famous Qantas "Kangaroo Route" between Sydney and London departed on 1 December 1947 at 10:06 pm when Captain Ken Jackson piloting the Lockheed L-749 Constellation VH-EAA departed from Sydney with 29 passengers aboard. The aircraft also carried 1 tonne of food parcels donated by QEA staff for their colleagues at BOAC in the UK who were still struggling under post-war rationing. This was the first scheduled overseas flight for a Qantas Empire Airways Constellation. A return ticket cost £585, at the time when an average Sydney house was around £800. Source: Neil Montagnana-Wallace, The Flying Kangaroo: 100 Years of Qantas.

1969 On 1 December 1969, Boeing 707-320 N892PA being operated by Pan Am and making a daylight take off from Sydney, NSW ran into a flock of gulls just after V1 and prior to rotation and after a compressor stall and observed partial loss of thrust on engine 2 (only), the aircraft commander elected to reject the take off. Despite rapid action to initiate maximum braking and the achievement of full reverse thrust on all engines including No 2, this resulted in an overrun of the end of the runway by 170m and substantial aircraft damage. A full emergency evacuation was carried out with no injuries to any of the occupants. There was no fire. The Offical Investigation Report was published in August 1970 and concluded that, despite the decision to reject the take off being made after V1, the subsequent overrun was "not inevitable". The conclusion of probable cause was that "in the circumstances of an abandoned take-off, the aircraft could not be brought to a stop within the nominally adequate runway length because of an error in the calculation of load, a reduction in wind velocity from that forecast and the use of rolling start and braking techniques which would not ensure most effective use of the available runway length." Sources: DCA Air Safety Investigation Branch, Special Investigation Report 69-1; Skybrary website

1991 The CAA introduced a new Airways Management Air Traffic Services (AMATS) system on 1 December 1991, to a mixed response from pilots. Source: Australian Financial Review, 19 April 1992; Australian Aviation, 8 1998. via aph.gov.au website

1999 Cessna 172R VH-EWO crashed at Melton, 6 km north-east of Gisborne, Victoria on 1 December 1999. The pilot of the Cessna 172R had planned a private flight, with three friends, from Moorabbin via Williamstown, Laverton, Melton and Torquay before returning to Moorabbin. Before departure, the pilot arranged for the fuel load on the aircraft to be adjusted in order to ensure that the aircraft did not exceed its maximum allowable weight limit. The aircraft departed Moorabbin at about 1350 EST. Witnesses, including some with relevant aviation experience, reported seeing the aircraft conducting steep turns south of Melton township, north-east of Melton aerodrome, north of Gisborne and in the vicinity of the accident site. This information is consistent with photographs taken from the aircraft during the flight. Radar information indicated that between 1432 and 1435, the aircraft was flown in a sequence of left turns through 360 degrees in the vicinity of the accident site. These turns were conducted at an altitude of between 1,900 ft and 2,300 ft above mean sea level (approximately 550 to 950 ft above ground level). Witnesses reported that after completing two 360 degree left turns in the vicinity of the accident site, the aircraft headed north and adopted a nose-high attitude before entering a steep turn to the left. Most of the witnesses, including an experienced pilot, described seeing the aircraft's bank angle steepen as it passed a westerly heading and then the nose dropped such that the aircraft was heading approximately south in a near vertical, nose-down attitude. However, one witness described seeing the aircraft roll in a right-wing-over-left manoeuvre before it pitched nose-down. One witness reported seeing the aircraft spiral to the ground however most witnesses saw it descend straight to the ground in a nose-down, near vertical attitude. Witness reports and wreckage evidence indicated that the aircraft impacted the ground heading approximately south and in a nose-down, right wing low attitude. The aircraft, which was destroyed by the impact, came to rest approximately 27 m from the initial impact point. There was no fire. The four occupants received fatal injuries. Sources: ATSB investigation report 199905698; aviation-safety.net website

2006 The Shadow Minister for Transport Senator Kerry O’Brien noted on 1 December 2006 that the ATSB advised that they had referred Transair to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The Senator said that of great concern was that the seven ‘immediately reportable matters’, which had occurred between 1 July 2003 and the Lockhart River accident in May 2005, were not reported as required under the law. He stated that: ‘I am particularly concerned that in August 2004 and again in February 2005 that officers of CASA undertook safety audits of Transair and either took no action or were unaware of what can only be described as a continuing disregard for safety and the law by Transair management... Labor remains convinced that only a full and open Senate inquiry into CASA’s handling of Transair both before and since the disaster as well as other matters will help restore public faith in CASA’s ability to regulate air safety.’ Source: Senator Kerry O’Brien, Shadow Minister for Transport, ‘ATSB Action Exposes CASA’, Media Release, 1 December 2006. via aph.gov.au website