Lookleft,
You just can't help yourself, can you??
NOBODY said the absence of 18/36 was a cause, but had it still been there, the outcome might have been very different.
Where the aircraft landed was originally part of the 18/36 flight strip, not a gully with re-growth scrub, --- You do understand that, do you??
The fact that the loss of 18/36, as the last N/S GA public runway in the Sydney basin, was, and to this day is, a safety issue is not disputed by anybody who seriously knows the area and the weather patterns, and the history, including subsequent accidents in crosswinds on 11/29.
Perhaps you think/thought the CASA "safety case" for closing 18/36 --- that in the event of a "southerly buster" blowing up, low time students could declare a Mayday and divert to 16/34 at YSSY was satisfactory "risk mitigation?
Tootle pip!!