I remember it like it was yesterday.
I knew AH, the right seat pilot, but I was quite good friends with Peter Whitehurst the PIC. What a tragic and sad state of events.
What people may not know, was that this story had more twists than a cheap novel. Now some-one please correct me if I'm wrong, but I recall that the C-152 they were searching for with a 20 year old grade three instructor and his 18 year old ab-initio female student in fact had their crash witnessed by persons in another aircraft. Apparently both aircraft were taking turns flying at very low level over a smooth lake Burragorang, when the C-152 came to grief. The aircraft quickly sank, and as there appeared to be no survivors, the "old mate" in aircraft No2 simply flew away and didn't tell anyone. Media later reported that the reasons for his action were because he was a QF Cadet and didn't want his career jeapodised by these events!
After the loss of PLD, he was unable to live with himself, and only then did he inform the authorities. It was a short time later that BOU was brought to the surface. Personally I remember thinking it was probably in the dam all along, as it was only a training area flight, and it seemed to have simply vanished.
I'll tell you, fact can be stranger than fiction. Does anyone know what happened to the other pilot? I'd say it would be certain his Qantas days were over before they began.
