Time past quick time...another enduring mystery has just hit or passed the 40 yrs ago mark.
C 206 4-5 POB Mt Isa to Atherton....Have some notes somewhwere no can find at the moment. 1977? 8
En route report was 10 north abeam Geogetown . ETA for Atherton was 10 min before Last Light.
I was the burning season before the Wet and visibility was very poor. In the evening calm it got even worse at lower levels..there was a road alert vis to 50 mtrs.
ADF on board u/s apparently....not that there was anything on the Tablelands apart from radio stations..
3AM 558 was good and strong and would have been a life saver...alas.
Got lost, flew around, talked with CNS for hours...NO VDF there, 'homing' to tried with signal strength, ( lots of hills around.!!)..to no avail until fuel was exhausted. And they fell to earth ...where?
In the Coral Sea or the rain forest. After a colossal search, Cooktown to Townsville deep and 50nm inland to the Outer reef wide..NIX , Nought , Nothing ever found.
Whey the hell they never asked the guy to steer SE and climb...in 20 mins he would have been on TVL radar. That was the ONLY identifier in NQ in those days
Many, many interesting questions could be asked about this mystery. Make a good doco.
2 days later we flew south IFR in smoke over the tablelands until popped out into the bright blue clear at 8500'