John Werner

Expanded PNG coverage to include devastation of Rabaul, East New Britain by volcanic eruptions in September-October 1994. Airlink was an airline based in Madang with scheduled and charter operations through hubs at Wewak, Mount Hagen, Kavieng and Rabaul from about 1990. Airlink lost four aircraft in the 1994 Rabaul volcanic eruptions which covered the town and surroundings with ash and pumice up to seven metres in depth. The company ceased operations in August 2007 after suffering the additional losses of two aircraft - firstly an Embraer EMB-110-P1 Bandeirante (Pioneer) in March in West New Britain with the loss of both pilots then in April Airlink lost a Cessna 404 Titan at Goroka airport without loss of life. Prior to this, in 1999, Airlink had lost a Britten Norman Islander also in West New Britain, killing all on board and another Embraer Bandeirante near Goroka. However, Airlink could have been proud of their legacy with regards to the Rabaul eruptions as their personnel responded magnificently to the situation by the transport of supplies and equipment to the Rabaul refugees from Tokua airfield with the assistance of Heli Niugini helicopter support. Airlink pilots involved were Bill Kerr, Brad Marsh, Michael Knight and Chief Pilot Rod Marsland. Attached are photos from the time recording the events. I would love to go back to Rabaul now as I knew it in the 1970s well before it got smashed when I worked on the Panguna copper-gold mine on Bougainville and took R & R in Rabaul, staying at the Travelodge and Hotel Allen in Mango Avenue there. Who said nostalgia isn't what it used to be?

I was a friend and client of "Snow" Richards of Toowoomba, owner of Orchid Beach Resort and UnionAir and IslandAir air charter services in the 1970s and mid-1980s. I used to fly into Orchid Beach airstrip then with Snow or his aviator son, Steve Richards, or Arthur Morris, their senior pilot and had many enjoyable times there. The old resort was demolished in the early 2000s after beach erosion made it unsafe. As a client, I employed Snow's charter aircraft for weekly return crew changes on the Oaky Creek and Clermont coal mine projects in Central Queensland out of Eagle Farm airport, Brisbane. Aircraft types used were Piper Navajo Chieftain, Beech Queenair, Britten Norman Islander and Trislander, refuelling at either Thangool or Emerald. Steve mainly was the pilot but Arthur Morris also piloted many flights. As for Snow Richards, I recall an incident at Archerfield airport in the early 1980s with Snow doing a perfect "wheels up" landing on the grass strip in a Beech Baron with the two-blade props perfectly levelled in line with the wings using the starter motors so as to avoid damaging them upon touchdown. Funny thing was, Snow's son Steve asked his father that night how his day had been and Snow replied "Oh, the usual". Steve replied "You lying old bugger, I was flying the Channel Nine News helicopter over Archerfield and we got the whole incident on video tape". I have attached some photos of the Orchid Beach airstrip.

Thank you so much for this crash report, onetrack. It has cleared up a few miosconceptions that have developed over the years since, like the type of helicopter and the crash location. Captain Chas was a dear friend whom I flew with many times in PNG over the period 1970 - 1971. Apart from the many flights we had around the Musa River and Sisiworo River basins out of Safia, Chas also flew the Bell 47G-3B-2 to the top of the nearby Gorupu Mountains at an altitude of 3,078 m AMSL to drop me off for a few days' reconnaissance. Just before I exited the Bell, Captain Chas remarked that, if the engine stalled at that altitude, they would have to fly in an air compressor to restart it. Fond memories indeed of a remarkable aviator and man.

I used to fly in a Beech Baron from POM to Safia airstrip near the Musa River and Wanigela on the coast, sometimes to Tufi to refuel. The flight path took us through the Pakia Gap in the Owen Stanley Range, not the Kokoda Gap as in this post. This was in the period 1970 - 1972 in support of crew changes for Geophoto Resources Consultants exploration fly-camps with a base camp at Safia airstrip. The stream sediment sampling was carried out with the helicopter support by Helitrans of Lae with a Bell 47G-3B-2 chopper flown by Captain "Chas" Keith, a former Senior Captain with TAA in PNG mainly on Fokker Friendship F27 aircraft on the Moresby-Goroka-Mount Hagen route. Prior to that, Captain Chas was a crop duster pilot in a Pawnee in the Riverina of NSW. Unfortunately, Chas vanished on Mount Bellenden Ker in FNQ in about 1973 whilst undertaking a high-altitude test of a Bell Jet Ranger of Helitrans out of their new Cairns base as part of a Telecom transmission tower installation on the mountain. No trace was ever found of the crash site owing to the dense rainforest on the range. I have attached a photo of the Helitrans Bell 47G-3B-2 (call sign VH-PDX) that Chas Keith flew and I was a passenger in many times in PNG pictured on the ground at a helipad at Mount Hagen airport in 1971.