Supermarine Southampton – Aviation Historical Society of Australia

DerekB06/03/202303/06/2023

Aviation Heritage Vol. 54 No. 1 (March 2023) Contents Listing

The latest quarterly edition (March 2023) of the AHSA journal – Aviation Heritage – has recently been posted to members. The full contents are...

1964 The second of two Vikers Viscounts purchased by the RAAF, A6-436, arrived at RAAF Fairbairn, ACT on 10 October 1964. The aircraft was collected in the UK by WGCDR W Addison MVO AFC and crew on 1 October and was delivered via a southerly route through north Africa, India, Hong Kong, Okinawa and Guam. The aircraft was originally built for TAA but was not delivered. Instead, it went to the Iranian Government as EP-MRS in 1961. Source: airforce.gov.au

1987 IAI Westwind VH-IWJ on charter to Ansett crashed off Sydney Airport killing two. The aircraft was planned to conduct a regular freight service to Brisbane and Cairns. After an evidently normal take-off from Runway 16 the crew contacted Departures Radar, advised that the aircraft was climbing to Flight Level 370 and requested the direct track to Brisbane. Approximately two minutes later the crew did not respond to calls from the radar controller, and the aircraft faded from the radar screen. Witnesses subsequently reported that the aircraft was seen diving steeply towards the water. The evidence obtained from eye witnesses, recorded radar information and the Flight Data Recorder indicated that the aircraft entered a rapid turn to the right and rolled, probably to a nose-down inverted position, before entering a steep descent. The pilot in command intended to use the flight to assess the performance of the co-pilot, who was being considered for up-grading to command status. He was known to simulate emergency instrument flight conditions while checking company pilots. These simulations took the form of failures to the Flight Attitude Indicators on the left instrument panel, and the masking of the indicator on the right by covering or the removal of instrument lighting. It was likely that on this occasion that the simulated failures referred to above were given shortly before the aircraft commenced a planned turn to the left to take up the track towards Brisbane at a height of about 5000 feet. At this time the pilot in command had no external reference by which to monitor the attitude of the aircraft in relation to the horizon. The pilots did not recover control of the aircraft before impact with the water. Sources: ATSB investigation number 198502557; The Age, 28 September 1987, via aph.gov.au website

1995 Cessna 182R VH-XTK crashed at Warrnambool aerodrome, Victoria on 10 October 1995. The aircraft departed from runway 31. Runway lights were operating at the time. Dark night conditions prevailed. Witnesses heard and saw the aircraft flying low west of runway 31 and saw it descend very steeply. It impacted the ground 255 metres right of runway 31 centreline and about 900 metres from the 31 threshold. The ground impact marks and wreckage pattern indicated that the aircraft impacted left wing tip first in a very steep nose down attitude heading about 278M but in a left turn. There were no survivors from the three people aboard. Source: ATSB investigation number 199503369; aviation-safety.net website

1996 The CASA Board released a media statement on 10 October 1996 in relation to certain findings of the Seaview inquiry and lamenting comments about it made by the minister in Parliament. Source: Australian, 12 October 1996; Sydney Morning Herald, 10 October 1996. via aph.gov.au website

2021 Tony Nelson and Alexander Last (AUS) set a record for "Speed over a Commercial Airline Route" (in the category Powered Aeroplanes C-1 ) of 841.303 km/h on 10 October 2021 for a flight from Frankfurt (Germany) to Darwin (NT) in a Boeing 787. Source: FAI Records website, ID=19577