TAA Fokker Friendship disaster

The TAA Fokker Friendship disaster is the second largest loss of life in an Australian aircraft accident, with 29 deaths, after the Bakers Creek air crash in 1943. It occurred on 10 June 1960 at Mackay, Queensland, Australia. The twin-engined passenger plane, a Fokker Friendship belonging to Trans Australia Airlines (TAA), registration VH-TFB, was operating TAA Flight 538 from Brisbane. While on final approach to land at night and in foggy conditions, it flew into the ocean south-east of Mackay. It was TAA's first fatal accident in the 14 years since the airline was founded.

Aircraft

The aircraft that crashed was TAA's first Fokker Friendship F-27 aircraft. TAA was the first airline outside of Europe to order the type. TAA's director of engineering, John L. Watkins OBE, accepted the aircraft at the Fokker works near Schipol Airport, Amsterdam, on 6 April 1959. The aircraft was christened "Abel Tasman" after the Dutch explorer who was the first European to reach New Zealand, Tasmania, and parts of Australia in 1642-1644. The aircraft was given registry number VH-TFB. The acceptance ceremony was attended by the Australian ambassador and his wife, Sir Edwin and Lady McCarthy.

By June 1960, TAA had 12 Fokker Friendships in service, and in the 14 years since the airline's creation in 1946, it had never had a fatal accident.

Accident

On the late afternoon and evening of Friday, 10 June 1960, VH-TFB was flying TAA Flight 538 from Brisbane to Mackay, with stops at Maryborough and Rockhampton. It left Brisbane on time at 5pm under the command of Captain F. C. Pollard with G. L. Davis as First Officer.

The flight to Maryborough and on to Rockhampton was normal. The plane arrived at Rockhampton Airport at 7:12pm, where the crew received the weather forecast for Mackay, predicting shallow fog patches. VH-TFB was refuelled to 700 gallons, giving sufficient range to continue on to Townsville if fog made it impossible to land in Mackay.

Adding to the nine passengers already aboard, seven adults and nine schoolboys joined the flight at Rockhampton. All the schoolboys were boarders at Rockhampton Grammar School, returning home to Mackay for the Queen's Birthday long weekend. One of these, nine-year-old Max Barclay from Carrington Station near Nebo, was celebrating his ninth birthday, and instead of his parents driving down to pick him up, he was allowed to fly home instead as a special birthday treat.Fact|date=September 2008

VH-TFB departed from Rockhampton at 7:52pm and ascended to convert|13000|ft|m|-2. At 8:17pm, Mackay air traffic controller E. W. Miskell reported that fog had rolled in and temporarily closed Mackay Airport. A few minutes later, having come to the spot where he would start descending, Captain Pollard told the tower controller he would hold over Mackay at convert|13000|ft|m|-2 in case visibility improved. At 8:40pm they reported they were over the airport. They continued to circle.

By 10pm, the fog was thinning. Air traffic controller Miskell reported this to VH-TFB, and Captain Pollard said they would begin an approach to the airport. Miskell reported the airport conditions. Pollard acknowledged the transmission.

Miskell then telephoned the airport fire service for the latest ground temperature. It was 13 degrees Celsius. Miskell immediately reported this to VH-TFB. This time, there was no acknowledgement.

Miskell transmitted again, noting the time was 10:05pm, and again there was no reply. At 10:10pm, Miskell started the procedure for launching a search and rescue operation.

Immediate aftermath

Five hours after the accident, at about 3am on the morning of Saturday, 11 June 1960, a searchlight-equipped motor launch found items of wreckage, including damaged passenger seats, clothing and cabin furnishings, floating on the ocean between Round Top Island and Flat Top Island, five nautical miles due east of Mackay Airport.

A navy survey ship, HMAS "Warrego", was sent to search for the sunken wreckage, and arrived on Sunday, 12 June 1960. At 4:20pm that afternoon, "Warrego" discovered the major sections of VH-TFB in 40 feet of water, a further four nautical miles (7 km) south-west of Round Top Island (or about three nautical miles (6 km) south-east of Mackay Airport). Salvaging the wreck took another two weeks.

Cause

A Board of Accident Inquiry was appointed on 29 July 1960; after allowing the investigators to sift the wreckage, it finally opened on 4 October 1960. The board sat for four days in Brisbane and two more in Mackay, before concluding on 10 November 1960.The inquiry did not determine a particular cause. The aircraft had flown into the ocean for no apparent reason, and so the board focussed on the altimeter. One possibility was that the static pressure system, which measures air pressure to determine altitude, may have been contaminated with water that froze during the flight.

Another possibility was that the reading of the three-pointer altimeter was misinterpreted. This type of altimeter has individual pointers for thousands, hundreds and tens of feet, and can be difficult to interpret. [ [http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/users/blayw/flyingl.html informatics.sussex.ac.uk] ] Errors of 1,000 or 10,000 feet were common, as had been outlined by W. F. Grether in a 1949 report for the "Journal of Applied Psychology". [ [http://www.bainbrdg.demon.co.uk/Papers/MWLaTH.html bainbrdg.demon.co.uk] ] As a consequence, three-pointer altimeters were later dropped. If human error were the case, the accident may have simply been the result of a controlled flight into terrain. However, many commentators thought this unlikely, given the long experience of Captain Pollard.Fact|date=February 2008

Another possibility

Another possibility was posited by TAA's director of engineering, John L. Watkins OBE, who was intrigued by a mysterious brown glass medicine bottle discovered in the wreckage of the cockpit. Watkins theorised that one of the schoolchildren on the flight may have been an aviation enthusiast, and had been shown into the cockpit whilst handling a bottle of model aircraft fuel. At some point the bottle's contents may have spilled in the cockpit, the fumes distracting the pilots enough for them to make a mistake and crash.

Long-term aftermath

At 29 deaths, it remains Australia's largest loss of life in a civilian air disaster, as of 2008. In-flight voice recorders were still in development in 1960, and the Board of Inquiry recommended that these be installed in Australian commercial airliners when they were available.

ee also

*List of disasters in Australia by death toll

Notes

External links

* [http://www.abc.net.au/tropic/stories/s1128861.htm Fokker Crash Anniversary, 12 June 2005]