October 2, 2012
- UPDATE October 3:
No Survivors From Crash
Sixteen aircraft scouring rugged bushland west of Imbil have failed to locate a biplane which went missing yesterday afternoon with six people on board.
Police this evening released the names of the missing; they are: pilot Desmond Porter, 68, and his wife Cath, 61, from Tingalpa; Les D’evlin, 75, and his wife Janice, 61, from Manly West; and John Dawson, 63, and his wife Carol, 63, from Tingalpa.
Fourteen helicopters and two fixed-winged aircraft, co-ordinated by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), were brought into the search today. They will resume the search at 7:00am tomorrow.
The searchers are concentrating on a 500sq mile search zone centred on the Borumba Dam area.
The aircraft, a fully restored 1934 de Havilland Dragon biplane, went missing on Monday afternoon on a flight between Monto and Caboolture.
Searchers have been concentrating on an area west of Imbil which contains rugged bushland, a number of State Forests and Borumba Dam.
However the search has extended at times as far west as the mountain ranges north of Benarkin and Linville.
The red biplane, well-known in aviation circles, took off on Monday morning from Monto Airport after taking part in a weekend fly-in.
It was expected to arrive at Caboolture Airport about 2:15pm.
About 11.51am, the pilot is reported to have chatted with a friend as the plane passed over Gayndah.
The last known communication with the pilot was with AGL Action Rescue Helicopter Aircrewman Rick Harvey about 2:00pm yesterday.
Mr Harvey told the ABC this morning an AGL crew had responded to a distress call.
The crew spoke to the pilot briefly before they lost all contact.
“We were attempting to get that pilot to go to another radio frequency in order to speak directly, in order to try to get further information,” he said.
“But unfortunately a short time after that we were unable to receive any audio from the beacon at all and also no further radio communications from the pilot.”
AGL Rescue Helicopters from Bundaberg and Maroochydore searched an area between Kingaroy and Maleny until darkness fell on Monday night without spotting any sign of the missing aircraft. An AGL helicopter spokesman said the rescue beacon was no longer operating.
The search was hampered by low cloud which limited visibility.
Police officers also conducted ground searches on Monday afternoon in response to reports from members of the public who believe they may have heard the plane.
AMSA also brought in a specialist Dornier aircraft from Essendon equipped with electronic search capabilities.
The search resumed at 8:00am this morning with seven helicopters initially scouring the search zone. Poor weather in the area again hampered search efforts initially with low cloud around the mountains but conditions improved during the day.
The search will resume at 7:00am tomorrow.
* * *
Des Porter is an experienced pilot who was taking part in the second biennial NORRA-Aus Fly-In at Monto airport on Saturday.
The event was organised by Recreational Aviation Australia and sponsored by the North Burnett Regional Council. The inaugural event, held in 2010, attracted about 10,000 visitors plus 400 to 500 aircraft.
Mr Porter lovingly restored his Dragon biplane “Riama” in 2001 and regularly took the craft to airshows and fly-ins around Australia.
There are only four Dragons believed to be left flying in Australia but once they were quite popular; 115 were manufactured in England before World War II (including Mr Porter’s craft); 87 were built at de Havilland’s base at Bankstown during the war for use by the RAAF.
After the war, a number of commercial airlines and the Flying Doctor all used Dragons at some stage. They were nicknamed “the flying butterbox” because of their all-wooden construction.
Mr Porter’s Dragon (VH-UXG) has had a chequered history. The aircraft is believed to have been built in 1934 and was originally owned and operated by Aircrafts Pty Ltd (a forerunner of Queensland Airways) and then Queensland Flying Services. It was almost destroyed on April 19, 1954 after a crash and fire at Archerfield aerodrome. The plane crashed while attempting to take off on a newspaper delivery run.
Fate seems to have tied Mr Porter to this type of plane. At the age of 11, he survived the crash (October 23, 1954) of another Dragon which killed his father Stanley, 41, and brother Keith, 13, at Bulimba Creek in Brisbane (then known as Doboy Creek). Des managed to escape drowning.
[UPDATED 8:00pm]
[Video courtesy AGL Action Rescue Helicopter]
