Inside the Essendon DFO plane crash that changed Melbourne forever

IN nine seconds the DFO plane crash changed the city forever, but for many still trying to work out what caused the tragedy, the numbers just don’t add up.

ALL it took was nine seconds.

Seven cries for help were managed in that short time. The Beechcraft B200 Super King Air only managed to climb to 49m above ground.

DFO PILOT A ‘HERO’ SAYS WIDOW

‘INTERESTING FACETS’ FOUND IN WRECKAGE

ILL-FATED PLANE GONE IN 60 SECONDS

COUNCIL RAISED AIRPORT BUFFER CONCERNS

Flying is always a numbers game — co-ordinates, wind factor, number of pilots, altitude and timing. But this day, they are numbers nobody wanted to hear — zero chance of survival; five people dead.

One of the plane’s wheels ended up on Tullamarine Freeway. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

It was Victoria’s worst civil aviation accident in 30 years.

American mates Greg DeHaven, Russell Munsch, Glenn Garland and John Washburn boarded the plane for a dream golfing trip to Tasmania’s King Island. All required checks of the usually safe aircraft appeared to have been done. Paper work and maintenance records were also up to date.

American mates Greg DeHaven, Russell Munsch, Glenn Garland and John Washburn were killed in the crash.

But some say there were warning signs while the plane was on the tarmac at Essendon Airport. Witnesses have told investigators that takeoff was longer than usual.

Almost instantly after takeoff, the plane started to yaw to the left. Speed started to drop at a quick rate — the last reading was 371m per minute. A fiery horror soon followed.

The chartered plane with four mates and the pilot crashed into the DFO shopping complex. Melbourne commuters driving along the busy Tullamarine Freeway witnessed the tragedy — dash cams recording a horrible ­moment in time.

The scene of the light plane crash at DFO Essendon. Picture: Ian Currie

The plane came to rest in a carpark behind the DFO building. Intense burning flames stopped any heroic efforts, though many ran to try to help, only to be pushed back by the heat.

Propeller slash marks and even the plane’s nose could be seen in the building roof. Within that doomed nine-second flight, pilot Max Quartermain radioed air traffic ­control just before the death plunge.

A normal cockpit voice recorder (top) and the voice recorder retrieved from the wreckage of Beechcraft King Air B200 that crashed at Essendon (below). Picture: ATSB

“MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY,” he repeated seven times.

Despite the urgency of the call, the nature of the emergency was unknown.

There was a slight chance the cockpit’s recorder — a charred mess — would hold vital clues as its memory board was undamaged.

But investigators’ hopes were soon dashed. All the audio was from a previous flight more than a month earlier. The reasons for the fail to record remain unknown and are still being examined.

In the hours that followed, Victoria Police determined “catastrophic engine failure” was the cause of so much heartache. But that didn’t stop the theories of what went wrong — fuel contamination, faulty engines, the plane was not safe to fly.

A preliminary report handed down about a month later was not as dramatic as some thought it would be.

“On-site examination of the wreckage did not identify any pre-existing faults with the aircraft that could have contributed to the accident,” the Australian Transport Safety Bureau report said.

“Both engines were rotating and that there was no evidence of pre-impact failure of either engine’s internal components.”

As the probe continues, questions remain, and for many, the numbers just don’t add up.

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