Hello mate, my name is Phil and on the day of the crash of the TAA F-27, I was the Corporal in charge of the Fuel Farms. Both myself and my offsider were hosing down the old No 1 Fuel Farm at the back of Fire Section, of cobwebs on the fuel tanks, when Dave Eli called out to me to come over and have a look at this aircraft!
We were both standing there at the back fence of the compound as Dave said, isn't that Fokker too far over to the right, which I answered yes and he's decending way too fast. Within seconds it hit as you said just a smidgen before the crash barrier and dust and bits of aircraft were beginning to fly into the air. But just before the aircraft hit the ground, the Crash Alarm went off in our ears, and the Fire Tenders were just beginning to switch on, when the Fokker crashed.
It certainly did head for the 482 Test Cell and the 26,000ltr yellow tanker, parked outside the Test Cell compound. We waited for the impact as the F-27 slewed around on its left wing, seeing that the left undercarriage had been torn away, but part of the aircraft was still over hanging the runway by a small amount!
At that instant three F-111's flew overhead, returning from a mission and were short of fuel. ATC gave one aircraft the ok to land from the Southern end, and was told to keep over to the left of the runway, as there were three appliances in attendance to a plane crash. The first F-111 landed and it ended up running out of runway, while attempting to avoid the crash scene and ran off the strip and ended up in the scrub at the Northern end, causing one of the Fire Engines to run up to it.
In the meantime a second F-111 decided to land on the other airstrip from over the Ipswich end, but also burned out its brakes and ran off the airstrip just stopping prior to the fencing right out the back of the 3AD huge hangar.
The third F-111 decided to divert to Brisbane Airport and ran out of fuel on the main runway, and was towed from the runway and not holding many aircraft up at all.
I remember reading in the Amberley Strike Magazine about what had happened, at it was a record that still stands, for the number of plane crashes at the one time at Amberley ha-ha.
We were amazed to be in the right spot at the right time, plus to be able to listen to the Fire Section tower sending Fire Tenders to the different aircraft. The third aircraft had a small back-up water tanker rush to it's aid and I said to Dave, geez if the third F-111 comes in and crashes as well, I bet we get called out with bloody buckets of water and made to run the length of the runway ha-ha.
So when I just happened to see your article I thought I had to contact you to verify what happened that day my friend?
Take care,
littlescrubba
