Oceania

On 17 July 2008, at approximately 0915 Eastern Standard Time1, the pilot of a Piper Navajo PA-31 aircraft, registered VH-IHR, was en route from Century Mine, Qld to Mt Isa, Qld when the left engine lost power. The pilot transmitted an urgency broadcast (PAN) to air traffic control (ATC). A short time later, the right engine also lost power. The pilot then transmitted a distress signal (MAYDAY) to ATC stating his intention to carry out an off-field emergency landing. The aircraft impacted terrain 22 km north of Mt Isa, about 4 km from the Barkly Highway, in relatively flat, sparsely wooded bushland (Figure 1). The pilot, who was the sole occupant, sustained serious injuries.

During takeoff the topdressing aircraft collided with a low hill. The pilot lost control soon after the collision. During the ensuing crash he was seriously injured and the aircraft was destroyed.

On 9 April 2008, at 2325 Eastern Standard Time, a Fairchild Industries Inc. SA227-AC (Metro III) aircraft, registered VH-OZA, departed Sydney Airport, New South Wales on a freight charter flight to Brisbane, Queensland with one pilot on board. The aircraft was subsequently observed on radar to be turning right, contrary to air traffic control instructions to turn left to an easterly heading. The pilot reported that he had a ‘slight technical fault’ and no other transmissions were heard from the pilot. Recorded radar data showed the aircraft turning right and then left, followed by a descent and climb, a second right turn and a second descent before radar returns were lost when the aircraft was at an altitude of 3,740 ft above mean sea level and descending at over 10,000 ft/min. Air traffic control initiated search actions and search vessels later recovered a small amount of aircraft wreckage floating in the ocean, south of the last recorded radar position. The pilot was presumed to be fatally injured and the aircraft was destroyed. Both of the aircraft’s on-board flight recorders were subsequently recovered from the ocean floor. They contained data from a number of previous flights, but not for the accident flight. There was no evidence of a midair breakup of the aircraft.

Shortly after takeoff from a remote terrain located in Te Uku, near Raglan, the pilot lost control of the aircraft that collided with a fence and crashed, bursting into flames. The pilot escaped uninjured while the aircraft was destroyed by fire.

On the afternoon of Friday 9 November 2007, the pilot of ZK-EGV, a specialised agricultural aeroplane powered by a turbine engine, began a task to sow 80 tonnes of superphosphate over a farm situated in low hills 5 km south of Opotiki township and 4 km from the Opotiki aerodrome. The pilot was familiar with the farm’s airstrip where he loaded the product, and with the farm. After 6 or 7 loads, the wind was too strong for top-dressing, so the pilot and loader-driver flew back to their base at the Whakatane aerodrome, about 40 km away. At Whakatane, the aeroplane’s fuel tanks were filled. Later that day, the pilot replaced the display for the aeroplane’s precision sowing guidance system, which had a software fault. The next morning, 10 November 2007, the pilot bicycled about 6 km from his house to the Whakatane aerodrome. The loader-driver said that the pilot looked “pretty tired” from the effort when he arrived at the aerodrome at about 0545. After the aeroplane had been started using its internal batteries, the pilot and loader-driver flew to complete a task at a farm west of Whakatane. The pilot’s notebook recorded that he began the task at 0610 and took 45 loads to spread the remaining 68 tonnes of product, an average load of 1511 kilograms (kg). The loader-driver said that the pilot had determined about 2 months earlier that the scales on the loader used at that airstrip were “weighing light” by about 200 kg, so the loader-driver allowed for that difference. After that task, the pilot and loader-driver flew back to the farm south of Opotiki where they had been the previous afternoon. A different loader at that airstrip had accurate scales, and the loader-driver said that he loaded 1500 kg each time, as requested by the pilot. The fertiliser that remained in the farm airstrip storage bin after the accident was found to be dry and free flowing. The sowing task at this farm began at 1010 and the pilot stopped after every hour to uplift 180 litres (L) of fuel, which weighed 144 kg. During the last refuel stop, between 1226 and 1245, he had a snack and a drink. Sowing recommenced at 1245 with about 3 minutes between each load, the last load being put on at about 1316. The loader-driver said the wind at the airstrip was light and the pilot did not report any problem with the aeroplane. After the last refuel, the top-dressing had been mostly out of sight of the loader-driver. When the aeroplane did not return when expected for the next load, the loader driver tried 3 or 4 times to call the cellphone installed in the aeroplane. This was unsuccessful, so at 1338 he followed the operator’s emergency procedure and called 111 to report that the aeroplane was overdue. Telephone records showed that on 10 November 2007 the aeroplane cellphone had been connected for a total of more than 90 minutes on 14 voice calls, and had been used to send or receive 10 text messages. Correlation of the call times with the job details recorded by the pilot suggested he sent most of his messages while the aeroplane was on the ground. Nearly all of the calls and messages involved a female work colleague who was a friend. The pilot initiated most calls by sending a message, but each time that the signal was lost during a call, the friend would stop the call and immediately re-dial the aeroplane phone; so, in some cases, consecutive connections were parts of one long conversation. The longest session exceeded 35 minutes. The nature of the calls could not be determined, but the friend claimed the content of the last phone call was not acrimonious or likely to have agitated the pilot. The friend advised that the pilot had said he often made the phone calls to help himself stay alert. At 1153, in a phone call to his home, the pilot indicated that the job was going well and he might be home by about 1400. In one call to the friend, the pilot said that he was a bit tired and that he hoped the wind would increase enough that afternoon to force him to cancel the next job. At 1308:45, the friend called the aeroplane phone and talked with the pilot until the call was disconnected at 1320:14. The friend said that while the pilot had been talking, the volume of his voice decreased slightly then there was a “static” sound. Apart from the reduced volume, the pilot’s voice had sounded normal and he had not suggested anything untoward regarding the job or the aeroplane. The friend immediately called back, but got the answerphone message from the aeroplane phone. Two further attempts to contact the pilot were unsuccessful, but the friend did not consider that anything untoward might have happened. An orchardist who was working approximately 3 km from the farm being top-dressed had heard an aeroplane flying nearby for some hours before he heard a loud sound that led him to fear that there had been an accident. He noted that the time was 1320 and immediately began to search the surrounding area. After the loader-driver’s emergency call, the Police organised an aerial search, which found the wreckage of the aeroplane at 1435 on the edge of a grove of native trees, approximately 600 metres (m) northwest of the area being top-dressed. The pilot had been killed. His body was not removed until 26 hours after the accident, because of a Police concern not to disturb the wreckage until aviation accident investigators were present. The CAA began an investigation that day into the accident and the Commission sent an investigator to help determine whether there were any similarities with another Fletcher accident that the Commission was then investigating. On 19 November 2007, because of potential issues that concerned regulatory oversight, the Commission started its own inquiry.

The pilot was ferrying the aircraft under the visual flight rules (VFR) from the operator’s base at Tully, Qld to Ingham and return. The flights, conducted in the private category without passengers, were to allow aircraft maintenance to be conducted at Ingham. The flight from Tully to Ingham was conducted in the morning, with no reported difficulties. At 1454 Eastern Standard Time, the pilot departed Ingham on the return flight to Tully. The aircraft did not arrive at Tully. It was not until the next day that the pilot and aircraft were reported missing. Australian Search and Rescue (AusSAR) was notified and a search, based on the last air traffic control radar observed position of an unidentified aircraft from a replay of recorded radar data together with witness reports from the area, was initiated. Searchers located the aircraft wreckage on the morning of 18 August. The aircraft had impacted mountainous terrain in a state forest 24 km south of Tully. The pilot was fatally injured and the aircraft was destroyed.

On Thursday 9 August 2007, the DHC-6 aeroplane registered F-OIQI was scheduled to fly a public transport flight (QE1121) between Moorea and Tahiti Faa’a with a pilot and 19 passengers on board. The flight, with an average duration of 7 minutes, is performed under VFR at a planned cruise altitude of 600 feet. The following information is derived from the on-board audio recording and witness statements. At 21 h 53 min 22, startup was authorised. The pilot made the safety announcement in English and in French: “Ladies and Gentlemen, hello and welcome on board. Please fasten your seatbelts”. At 21 h 57 min 19, the air traffic controller cleared the aeroplane to taxi towards holding point Bravo on runway 12. At 21 h 58 min 10, the aeroplane was cleared to line up. It taxied up the runway and lined up at the level of the second taxiway. At 22 h 00 min 06, the aeroplane was cleared for takeoff. Six seconds later the engines were powered up. At 22 h 00 min 58, the pilot retracted the flaps. At 22 h 01 min 07, propeller speed was reduced. At 22 h 01 min 09 the pilot uttered an expression of surprise. Two GPWS warnings sounded, propeller speed increased and four further GPWS warnings sounded. The aeroplane struck the surface of the sea at 22 h 01 min 20. One minute and eight seconds elapsed between engine power-up and the end of the audio recording. Fourteen bodies were recovered during the rescue operations. Some aeroplane debris, including parts of the right main gear and seat cushions were recovered by fishermen and the rescue team. Some days later, at a depth of seven hundred metres, a fifteenth body was recovered during operations to recover the flight recorder, both engines, the instrument panel, the front part of the cockpit including engine and flaps controls, the flaps jackscrews and the tail section. It was noted that the rudder and elevator control cables were broken off in their forward parts and that the elevator pitch-up control cable had, in its aft part, a second failure whose appearance was different from that observed on the other failures that were examined.

At 1946 Eastern Standard Time on 31 July 2007, a Rockwell International Aero Commander 500S, registered VH-YJB (YJB), departed Essendon Airport, Vic. on a business flight to Shepparton that was conducted at night under the instrument flight rules (IFR). On board were the pilot and one passenger. At 1958, while in the cruise at 7,000 ft above mean sea level (AMSL) in Class C controlled airspace, radar and radio contact with the aircraft was lost simultaneously by air traffic control when it was about 25 NM (46 km) north-north-east of Essendon. The air traffic controller declared a distress phase after a number of unsuccessful attempts to contact the pilot. At 2003, the Operations Director at Melbourne Centre declared the aircraft as probably lost and advised AusSAR. A search was commenced using a helicopter and an aeroplane in addition to ground search parties. No emergency locator transmitter signal was reported. At 2147, aircraft wreckage was located by a searching aircraft in timbered ranges near Clonbinane, approximately 50 km north of Melbourne. At about 2200, a ground search party confirmed that the wreckage was that of YJB and that there were no survivors. The flight was arranged to take the company owner, who was also a licensed aircraft maintenance engineer (LAME), to Shepparton to replace an unserviceable starter motor in another of the operator‟s aircraft. The pilot, who had landed at Essendon at 1915 from a previous flight in another of the operator‟s aircraft, was tasked to fly the owner to Shepparton. The pilot transferred to YJB, which had previously been prepared for flight by another company pilot. At 1938, while taxiing for takeoff, the pilot advised the aerodrome controller of the intention to conduct the IFR flight, adding, „…and request a big favour for a submission of a flight plan, with an urgent departure Essendon [to] Shepparton [and] return‟. The aerodrome controller did not have the facilities for processing flight notifications and sought the assistance of a controller in the Melbourne air traffic control centre. There were no eyewitnesses to the accident. Residents living in the vicinity of the accident site were inside their homes and reported difficulty hearing anything above the noise made by the wind and the foliage being blown about. One of the residents reported hearing a brief, loud engine noise. Another resident thought the noise was that of a noisy vehicle on the road. The noise was described as being constant, „…not spluttering or misfiring‟ and lasted for only a few seconds. Some of those residents near the accident site reported hearing and feeling an impact only moments after the engine noise ceased. The aircraft was seriously damaged by excessive in-flight aerodynamic forces and impact with the terrain. The vegetation in the immediate vicinity of the main aircraft wreckage was slightly damaged as the aircraft descended, nearly vertically, through the trees. The pilot and passenger were fatally injured.

Following an uneventful flight, the pilot started the approach to Goroka Airport in poor weather conditions. After landing on runway 17R, the aircraft was unable to stop within the remaining distance. It overran and came to rest few dozen metres further. All four occupants escaped uninjured while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

On 9 April 2007, at 1703 Western Standard Time (WST), the main landing gear from a Beech Super King Air 200 aircraft, registered VH-SGT, collapsed on landing at Perth airport. Approximately two hours earlier, the aircraft was chartered to fly from Perth to Mount Hale, WA when shortly after takeoff from Perth the aircraft experienced a malfunction of the landing gear system. The main wheels and nose gear had become jammed and were unable to fully retract when selected up by the pilot. The pilot completed the emergency checklist actions contained in the Aircraft Flight Manual, but was unable to retract or extend the gear using either the automated control or the manual emergency system. The pilot then requested assistance from a passenger to operate the manual emergency extension system. The landing gear remained jammed despite the additional force applied to the lever from the passenger. The pilot contacted air traffic services and requested further assistance from company engineering personnel to visually assess the extension state of the landing gear. Two aerodrome passes were completed throughout the troubleshooting exercise and the pilot remained in radio contact with both groups during this phase. Following the flyovers and after holding over Rottnest Island at 5,000 ft for a period of approximately two hours, the pilot flew the King Air back to Perth airport. With the gear still jammed in the partially retracted position, both the left and right main landing gear assemblies collapsed after the aircraft touched down on Runway 24. The aircraft was substantially damaged as a result of the collapse (Figure 1). The airport Rescue and Fire Fighting (RFF) services and other relevant agencies had been alerted and were waiting in response when the King Air landed. No injuries were sustained by the pilot or any of the nine passengers on board.