Tinpis,
I was on the search for the Smiths for the whole period. As you say the trail of the survivor was tracked but he was found dead with his nav bag indicating he was not thinking too straight.
There were a few interesting things happened on the search. One was The Director of Operations of DCA refusing to let other qualified helicopter drivers use the Alluette/Lama which had been given as an unqualified loan for the search because it was "his" aircraft. We lost a very useful powerful machine for much of the time.
Another was the shortage of turbine qualified civil pilots available to fly the Macair Porters. This was the reason I and other Army pilots were able to earn a few dollars on our leave time moonlighting.
During that search we had two Army Porters available and one Macair Porter. There were at least two of these aircraft in the air at all times. Graham Syphers flew the Macair Porter as much as he could but as Macair Chief Pilot he was also heavily involved in the administrative side of the operation.
One of the Army Porters was in the air at all times with our limited pilot availability jumping from one to the other during refuels. I flew the second one
and on arrival back in Lae for fuel, walked across the airfield and jumped in the Macair Porter (still in Army flying suit) alternating throughout the day. I think Ian Sinnott may have been on the musical chairs as well. Anyhow as related the search was eventually abandoned. Operations continued from first to last light - no crew times considered. Of course it was all hands to the pumps and there was a big flock of every available aircraft, not just Macair machines, looking.
I think it was called off on a Thursday night. On Saturday morning I was flying the Macair Porter on my day off doing coffee shuttles and while waiting to load on the side of the strip - can't recall if it was Mindik or Pindiu - was approached by ? (a European but not the Kiap) saying some remote villagers had just come in on foot reporting sighting the crashed aircraft. As soon as I got in the air I talked to Lae and within a very short time a rescue team was gathered and on-site.
They found the aircraft and tracked the poor fellow to find him propped up against a tree having succumbed to his injuries.
Last edited by aaavn; 12th Mar 2014 at 08:07.