Airvan missing in Arnhem Land
 

Just saw this news item, hope the pilot is OK.

Search continues for missing plane in Arnhem Land - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Debris found..

Debris found in search for missing plane | The Australian

Thoughts and prayers are going out for the pilot, his family, and the company.

Hopefully they'll find him sitting on a beach somewhere in the bay.

Doesn't look good. My thoughts and hopes go out to the pilots friends family and colleagues.

Bugger!:sad:

Seems to be a few scarecans lately getting bent, for such a docile Aeroplane it makes you wonder!

Not the place i want to be taking a paddle, although if your going to spear one in, a scarecan is the one you will most likely survive in!

:sad: thoughts go out to his family. hopefully they find him, alive.

does seem that a few squarecans are getting bent as of late

There was a broadcast on Channel 16 (Marine) this afternoon with search area information and request for any vessel to report in sightings of debree

Water World is not too kind for people to be in it up this way :(

Guess the Dornier's are out combing the area ?! Could deploy two I suppose between Darwin one and Cairns one

Smoothie

Alser
 

I think there are 2 Ausar aircraft out, as well as 3 choppers. Stuff reported as found so far does not include broken bits of airframe, so there is hope!

I heard they have recovered jerry cans and a nose wheel washed up on the coast. Doesn't bode well :(

Very sad.

Does anyone know about the weather that was around there at that time?

Any ideas whether it may be mechanical related, or did the poor fellow find himself in a thunderie.........

My thoughts go out to his family and workmates

Alser
 

Wx was apparently good there yesterday. It's a mystery!

For anyone in the know:

According to reports he/she was transporting petrol (maybe diesel out that way). I assume that MAF operates most flights as PVT, is this correct? If so how is DG handled? If not do they have a standard DG acceptance program? Is it common for MAF to do fuel deliveries?

I am not a journo (check my history of posts) so if you worry about what some in the press may say (not that the press should take much notice of that topic) please feel free to PM me.

FRQ CB

I know the pilot's sister, and I have a good mate working for MAF in Arnhem Land at the moment. Really bad news.

FRQ Charlie Bravo:

- MAF don't operate any flights as private, all pilots are CPL or ATPL and all operations whether it be Medivac, cargo transport, passenger flights are chartered and paid for, albeit on a not for profit basis. It's not some backyard operator.

- It's fairly common for MAF to do fuel deliveries, especially in Arnhem Land where the distances are wide and most roads are poor, turning to impassable in the wet season. Heavy falls have come early this year too. It could be diesel or AVGAS for one of MAF's outstations or for a settlement. It's a massive area they cover.

- All MAF pilots are DG compliant and MAF are authorised to carry DGs cargo.

FRQ CB

My understanding, from a former MAF pilot, is that they carry only diesel and only in the cargo pods.

SOP is to overfly water at a height so as to be able to glide to the coast in the event of an engine failure and not to track over water until such a height has been attained.

He was at a loss to explain how, short of catastrophic failure, the crash could have happened.

Without wishing to put the mockers on the attempt to locate the pilot it would appear to be yet another sad day in aviation and my sympathies are with his colleagues and family.

Alser
 

With never going out of gliding range, it makes no sense that no mayday was heard....should have had time if he had got to 4500. Catastrophic failure sounds possible, but maybe there would be more airframe pieces to find then?

The options are endless really, explosion, structural failure, skylarking, suicide, severe bird strike or just being plain unlucky in some way or another.

I would suggest waiting another year until the ATSB sort it out before asking why.

Looks like they've suspended the search.:(

Looks like they've started again, but if he's been in the water this long then it really doesn't look good at all. Very sad piece of news.

From the ABC

So why don't you do as you suggest and leave it be, instead of throwing out options three and four there. I was lucky enough to have met Hadleigh a number of times, and I am fairly familiar with his aviation and personal background. I would be extraordinarily surprised if either of those were an explanation, and I think to even suggest it without one ounce of evidence is grossly insulting. Honestly, how crass... :rolleyes:

Hadleigh, I hope to goodness that you are sitting on an island somewhere waiting to be rescued. Everyone down here does. God be with you mate.

TT

It would be geat to have this guy show up, the cops are stepping up the search so it seems, fingers xrossed. On a side note I don't know about everybody else but i carry a personal EPIRB with me on every flight, have done so for years. Obviously if it was a structual failure a self activated EPIRB won't help but the more marbles I have in my marble bag the more I can afford to loose!:ok:



CW:)