64-year anniversary since TAA Fokker F-27 Friendship tragedy
Beneath the palm trees in tropical Queensland, floral tributes will soon swamp a stone monument as loved ones from across the state mark 64 years since harrowing loss forever changed their families and Australian aviation laws.
QLD News
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The plain slab of rock erected under the palm trees of a sleepy seaside suburb does not call for attention.
But the words inscribed on the brass plaque attached to its front tell of one of Australia’s darkest tragedies that would inspire the mandatory installation of black box flight recorders on aeroplanes.
The rock memorial at Far Beach is a reminder of the turmoil that unfolded on June 10, 1960.
A rolling fog that Friday night had forced the Mackay Airport to shut its runway as the TAA Fokker F-27 Friendship in the skies above was enroute from Rockhampton and due to land at 8.30pm.
Instead, the Abel Tasman hovered above Far Beach for more than an hour as its pilot Captain Frank Pollard waited for clearer weather.
Meanwhile, family and friends of the 29 passengers and crew on-board waited at the airport for its arrival.
By 10pm, “panic descended on the airport” as the control tower lost contact, the late Vida Kidd said in 2012.
She was there that night waiting for her 20-year-old daughter Helen, as were family members of nine schoolboys from Rockhampton Grammar School who were coming home for the Queen’s Birthday weekend, accompanied by their 21-year-old teacher.
By 3.15am, rescue crews discovered the first of the bodies and wreckage near Round Top Island, about 10km from the coast.
The HMAS Warrego navy survey ship joined the desperate search effort the following day as patrols continued on land and sea.
Hours later, as 21 bodies remained unaccounted for, the navy discovered a large section of the plane’s fuselage 7m deep on the ocean seabed after seeing a large oil slick about 180m long by 9m wide on the surface.
The recovery mission was a grim and wide-scale fortnight-long operation as more than 400 people and more than 60 boats, including those from the Roylen Fleet, combed almost 100km of coastline and residents checked what the tides delivered to the shore each day.
The “crumpled scattered condition (of the remains) bear (ed) mute testimony of the violence of impact” and “marauding sharks (added) a further touch of horror to the macabre search”, the Royal Australian Navy News reported, with sharks having mauled at least two victims.
As new information came to light, the papers reported Captain Pollard had on that foggy night radioed the control tower asking to fly higher, reportedly having enough fuel to stay in the skies until 11pm and then fly to an alternative landing place if necessary.
At 10.30pm, two hours after the plane’s scheduled arrival time, the captain received news he could try land.
But “when the captain did not acknowledge receipt of the information by radio (about ground conditions) the tower declared an emergency,” the Canberra Times reported.
Within weeks, a memorial rock was erected at Far Beach and on June 26, more than 5000 gathered to pay their respects, with attendees travelling from Rockhampton, Maryborough and Brisbane.
And while 64 years later, the crash has for some faded into the annals of history, the surviving relations of those who perished are determined to ensure their memories live on.
They are quick to tell you the tragic loss of life was not for naught, instead becoming the catalyst for the compulsory installation of black box flight recorders on all turbine-powered aircraft in Australia by January, 1963.
To this day, there is no official explanation as to how the nation’s worst commercial air disaster could have happened.
It had been a routine flight from Brisbane to Mackay with stopovers in Maryborough and Rockhampton.
A 17-day inquiry four months after the crash heard the officer in charge of the Mackay control tower on that dreadful night did all he could to help the pilot.
Then Minister for Civil Aviation, Sir Shane Paltridge, stated the pilots for “obscure” reasons were not aware of how low they were flying “until it was too late”.
The disaster for many Mackay locals brought back dark memories of an earlier plane tragedy, which also happened in June.
Forty-one bodies had been huddled together inside a Boeing B-17C Flying Fortress, including 35 American soldiers due to return to the war-torn jungles of Papua New Guinea, when the aircraft plummeted into the sea.
Only the crew were wearing seatbelts, the rest forced to brace against one another as the fiery wreck fell to the ground on June 14, 1943.
There was one survivor.
It was at the time the world’s worst aviation disaster and a military secret kept from the newspapers.
Dozens gathered at the memorial site at Bakers Creek along the Bruce Highway at the weekend to pay their respects including Mackay students, RSL members, and Australian Air Force 105 Squadron cadets.
Read our special feature on the Baker’s Creek crash here.
More Coverage
Originally published as 64-year anniversary since TAA Fokker F-27 Friendship tragedy
Traffic chaos: 45-min delays on Bruce Hwy as long weekend exodus begins
Commuters looking to escape Brisbane for the long weekend are facing heavy delays on the Bruce Highway and other major arterials throughout SEQ.
The Qld seats and candidates to watch this federal election
After David Crisafulli ended Labor’s nine-year grip on power at the state level, the LNP hopes to increase its already huge presence in Queensland at federal level on May 3.