Still Not Found After 43 Years - Aussie Crash 1981 (MSFS)

[onetrack]

On 06/12/2024 at 12:36 AM, turboplanner said:

There was a bookie on board with the day's takings.

Well, that's exactly what I read all those years ago, too - so I wasn't imagining it. But I can't find any reference anywhere now, to that particular aspect of the story. There's repeated reference to three of the pax sailing an 18 metre steel-hulled yacht (the "Islay G") to the Whitsundays (from Sydney) for the aircraft owner, John Challinor. 

 

But the truth is, all four pax on VH-MDX were part of the volunteer crew on the Islay G, on its trip North to the Whitsundays. There were regular crew changes as the yacht went North, but all four pax - Ken Price, Noel Wildash, Phillip Pembroke and Rhett Bosler, were on the Islay G when it reached its destination, and none of the four have ever been identified as a bookmaker.

 

Their occupations are identified as below: -

 

Ken Price - former chief of the NSW Newcastle Water Police

Noel Wildash - Company Director

Phillip Pembroke - Nursing Home operator

Rhett Bosler - Finance broker.

 

This more precise information leads me to believe the story about a bookmaker on board, carrying "the days takings", is a total fabrication, quite possibly based on hearsay.

 

Most interesting is the winess report by a farmers wife (now deceased) at Upper Rouchel, who reported that she went outside after watching the 7:00PM news bulletin (one would presume it was the ABC News, as the ABC was most likely the only TV channel available in the area), and who thought she heard "a tractor coming up the hill".

 

She was shocked to sight an aircraft that flew directly over her head, "nearly close enough to touch". Note, this is not a witness report where they thought they sighted an aircraft or something, in the distance.

This would have been around the time of the last radio transmission, where the pilot literally yelped, "5000!!"

The townsite of Upper Rouchel has an altitude of approximately 250 metres (820 feet), but there's high terrain in the region ranging up to 1400 metres (4600 feet).

 

Upper Rouchel is quite some distance West from the Barrington Tops, where the last radar trace indicated the location of the aircraft. 

 

The last flight of Mike Delta X-ray - Photo Time Tunnel

WWW.PHOTOTIMETUNNEL.COM

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Mystery of Mike Delta X-ray plane crash

 

Fear of Landing – Cessna Missing Barrington Tops and the 2013 Search

FEAROFLANDING.COM

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Special thanks to Mark Nolan who filled me in on this and made scans of the original investigation available to me so that I could use primary sources for this post. On the 9th of August in 1981, a…

 

 

[FrankPilot]

Hi, I am the OP. Great to see such discussion. As well as the impossible terrain to see crash debris, I think a key part of the answer to the question as to where it is, is the fact that so much terrain has not been covered, as shown by this 2024 map. Cheers.

[onetrack]

You pick up interesting comments on many of the sites. A couple I read - one bloke is convinced the aircraft wreckage is located in one of the ravines in the upper reaches of the Wangat River or its tributaries. Another commenter says he sighted broken tree tops North of Burraga Swamp many years ago, whilst hiking with companions, looking for wreckage, and was convinced that it wasn't storm damage, it could only have been done by an aircraft crashing.

One would think that if it was storm-damaged treetops, it would be over a wider area. A relatively small number of damaged trees in close proximity would indicate damage by an aircraft coming down.

[turboplanner]

1 hour ago, onetrack said:

You pick up interesting comments on many of the sites. A couple I read - one bloke is convinced the aircraft wreckage is located in one of the ravines in the upper reaches of the Wangat River or its tributaries. Another commenter says he sighted broken tree tops North of Burraga Swamp many years ago, whilst hiking with companions, looking for wreckage, and was convinced that it wasn't storm damage, it could only have been done by an aircraft crashing.

One would think that if it was storm-damaged treetops, it would be over a wider area. A relatively small number of damaged trees in close proximity would indicate damage by an aircraft coming down.

The pockets of damaged trees are normal in dense bushland. If you take a look on Google earth at the mountain ranges north of Gippsland in Victoria you'll see the white "Stags" - trees that were snapped in isolated pockets of wind. with the bush right up to them untouched. If you compared this to the Barrington Tops and they were free of Stages, but there was just the one damaged area that's been reported then that would carry some weight.