Channel 7 Sunday Night Program About VH-MDX
Participants in this site may have seen the advertisements on Channel Seven that are running for their top rating show, Sunday Night, which is going to air this Sunday 1st June at 7.30pm. The program will cover that terrible VH-MDX Cessna 210 crash in the Barrington Tops area. This is where five people were killed and the crash site has never been discovered. The families of those on board have never had closure and been able to arrange proper burials.
I was extensively interviewed and probably had a different perspective to most. I blame the situation on the military airspace at Williamtown, which is situated right in the centre of one of the busiest air routes in the world. Even today the Enroute Supplement mentions flight limitations on how you cannot flight plan over Williamtown below 10,000 feet.
On the night of the accident (9th August, 1981), the Flight Service Officer even asked the pilot if he wanted to try and get direct tracking over Williamtown. The Pilot agreed, however was quickly told there would be a delay. Imagine holding out there over the mountains in turbulent winds, waiting for however long it would take for the flight details to be sent to Williamtown and for the controller to provide the clearance – it was CAVOK at Willi at the time.
The Pilot decided to take the risk and follow the normal route which diverts around Williamtown but puts an aircraft and its passengers over some of the most rugged country in Australia – if, indeed, the world! Of course, the winds reported that night was up to 70 knots and so there would have been a gigantic rotor. Pilots who have flown in that area in high winds all know just how violent it can be.
Of course, nothing has changed. You can’t file a flight plan across Williamtown if it’s active. I mentioned in my interview that I don’t know anywhere else in the world where such a situation exists. My experience on my flights around the world is that in other countries the military facilitate all traffic through their airspace in every way they can; they don’t use the Australian principle of ‘sterilising’ airspace whenever the airspace is made active – the whole airspace becomes active and others are restricted and can’t file a flight plan through the airspace.
Also, remember in those days - and what’s not in the BASI Report is that the Pilot never, ever spoke to a radar controller - it was all going second and third-hand to the Flight Service Officer. I’m glad I fixed that when I was Chairman of CAA – but I remember the resistance to having airspace that was covered by radar actually then allowing the pilots to talk directly to the radar controller – as it is today.
I have a feeling that this will be a very disturbing program.