By a C-130 pilot who wishes to remain anonymous.
25Dec74
I was celebrating 1974 Christmas with my family at my in-laws house in Sydney on Christmas Day when I heard about Cyclone Tracey on the radio. I rang the squadron (C130 – “Herc” Squadron) immediately to offer my services as I knew they would become involved. But all aircraft had already been crewed up, so I was asked to depart Richmond on 27Dec when another aircraft would then be available.
27-28Dec74
On 27Dec I picked up an aircraft and a crew and departed for Canberra where we picked up emergency equipment for Darwin. As there was uncertainty about the weather, and the availability of fuel in Darwin, we then flew to Alice Springs where we topped up with enough fuel to fly to Darwin, not be able to land, and to return to Alice (or some other place).Then on the Darwin, which had no working navigation aids, nor radar or approach aids, nor “normal” communications available. We did not have an understanding of the actual weather, nor the actual state of the airfield, but en-route we discussed how we were going to penetrate the cloud, arrive at the airfield and assess the runway condition. I recall the Tower only had a hand-held VHF radio set but once we were in range of that we were able to be briefed on what to expect, and we knew other aircraft had gotten in OK. The navigator on board was a USAF exchange officer, and he had conducted Airborne Radar Approaches in Hercs in the USAF and he convinced me that this was a good option, tho I had never performed one or even discussed such a thing. Anyhow, because Darwin airport stuck out on a spit of land we figured the “weather” radar in the Herc would be able to pick this up and allow us to line up on the runway. And so we performed this manoeuvre from a straight-in approach, and my memory of it was that we broke overcast cloud at 500’ AGL with the aircraft lined up on the runway at a suitable distance which allowed us to land straight ahead. The weather was not a problem as I recall – not heavy rain or strong winds. A path had been cleared down the centre of the runway with debris pushed to either side. No problem as the runway was very wide and we had plenty of room to land.
The concerns at Darwin were largely associated with the fear of diseases from malfunctioning infrastructure so the main aim was to evacuate Darwin as soon as possible. The civilian passenger terminal was set up with placards showing the Australian major cities, and passengers were asked to wait under the sign of their preferred destination. When an aircraft load was assembled, an aircraft and crew would be assigned to fly there. My first load was to Brisbane and we did a night flight there, making it a long day for us.
The next day we returned to Darwin via RAAF Base Amberley to pick up more equipment (lots of tents, generators and medical gear.)
29-30Dec74
On the 29th we again departed Darwin for Brisbane, arriving after dark, and then on the Rockhampton, arriving after midnight (about 1am as I recall). We had a problem with the aircraft which required us to keep one engine running while we loaded more emergency equipment and refuelled the aircraft. This took over an hour, so for all that time the residents of Rockhampton were subjected to the dulcet tones of the Allison T56 engine. Once loaded, back to Darwin by night, arriving early on the 30th, so all up it had been a long period on duty.
After some time on the ground at Darwin, the next task was a flight to Adelaide. When I returned to the aircraft from Flight Planning at Darwin, the Loadmaster informed me that a police car had driven up to the back of the aircraft and two burly NT Policeman had bundled a person onto the aircraft and departed without a word. As this seemed strange I rang the Darwin Police who stated that the person was a known criminal who had shot a Policeman in Darwin, and who had a distinct dislike for all police to the extent that he would go mental at the sight of a police uniform. I expressed my concern about what would happen on arrival Adelaide as there were sure to be emergency services personnel meeting the aircraft including Police. I was assured that the Adelaide end was covered and would not be an issue.
On arrival at Adelaide that night, an ambulance backed up to the aircraft once the engines were shut down and the ramp opened. This seemed strange as we had no-one on board that needed medical attention. The back doors of the ambulance opened and out jumped two policemen who ran into the aircraft, grabbed the criminal and bundled him into the ambulance and drove off.
The aircraft was fitted out for military passengers so had four rows of canvas seating arranged longitudinally down the aircraft providing 94 sideways-facing passenger seats. On this flight we actually carried 168 passengers, mainly women and children, so the women had to carry their children on their laps for the 5 hour flight. Not only was this very uncomfortable for them, but the aircraft had no toilet facilities other than a tin can with a canvas curtain located on the aircraft rear ramp. The aircraft was never intended for civilian passengers and was cold, noisy and uncomfortable, and had no catering facilities other than the dreaded “box lunch”. These passengers did it tough, and some urinated in the seats. Evacuees who managed to get on civilian airliners had a much better time of it.
During the flight down to Adelaide, we devised a roster to enable each member of the flight deck crew to have a quick “Z”, as we were all tired. Other crewmembers took over the tasks of the sleeping person for half an hour or so. When I woke up from my turn to have a “Z”, I looked around the flight deck and all crewmembers were asleep – the Herc had just kept droning on with the autopilot engaged! There was then a flurry of activity as our current position was re-established and normal duties recommenced!
1975
Multiple flights to Darwin taking mainly generators. The civilian evacuations were mainly being handled by civilian aircraft so the return flights sometimes consisted of a few Servicemen, and their cars!
One load we took to Darwin consisted entirely of sheets of roofing iron. As this was a dense load and very heavy, it constituted the heaviest load I ever carried in the Herc. Normally the cargo hold would “bulk-out” around 20,000 pounds but this load was 45,000 pounds and this unusually high cargo weight, together with the fuel necessary for the flight, put the aircraft over its normal maximum all-up-weight, and we needed to use the “war-overload” provision to depart. Under this provision, the aircraft needed to have a minimum amount of fuel in the wing tanks at all times to retain wing rigidity, so this required us to make an intermediate stop for fuel as otherwise we would have arrived at Darwin with less than the required amount in the wing tanks.
3rd Party Incidents (not verified)
1. On approaching Darwin, the Herc was struck by lightning, taking out the aircraft radar and compasses. The aircraft had some difficulty locating Darwin, and had no way to penetrate cloud, so eventually another Herc was despatched and shepherded the stricken aircraft into Darwin.
2. One Herc on the ground at Darwin had an engine problem and was awaiting a spare. But tarmac space was limited so the Senior Officer directed that the aircraft depart on 3 engines without passengers or cargo. Shortly after takeoff the aircraft suffered another engine failure, but don’t recall where it landed.
Perhaps the "
The concerns at Darwin were largely associated with the fear of diseases from malfunctioning infrastructure" may indicate why the pets were taken from the pax. Is there a vet in the house who could comment?