First published in The Age on June 13, 1960
FUSELAGE OF FOKKER WRECK SEEN BENEATH SEA
Navy Will Begin Salvage At Dawn
BRISBANE. The bodies of most of the 29 victims of Friday’s Fokker Friendship sea crash are expected to be found in the aircraft fuselage, which navy divers will begin raising at dawn tomorrow.
The wreckage of the aircraft is examined at a shed at Mackay HarbourCredit:Stuart MacGladrie
The fuselage, in two shattered sections, was found late today three miles from the area where eight bodies were recovered yesterday.
The wreckage was found in 24 feet of water after a Department of Civil Aviation aircraft had spotted a tell-tale 200ft. by 100ft. oil slick.
The wreckage lies on the seabed five miles from Round Top island and seven and a half miles south-east of Mackay.
The navy survey ship Warrego, which was searching in another area, was immediately called in and anchored over the slick 20 minutes later.
The diver was sent below after the ship’s radar and asdic equipment had confirmed that an object with all the characteristics of fuselage lay below.
The recovery operation carried out by the HMAS WarregoCredit:Stuart MacGladrie
The diver, after his few minutes on the seabed was unable to say whether the cockpit was still attached to one of the fuselage sections.
He was also unable to examine the sections to see if they contained bodies.
D.C.A. experts investigating the crash believe most of the 21 passengers and the crew not already recovered will be found when the wreckage is raised.
The navy diver had only a few minutes to confirm that the fuselage lay beneath the oil slick before darkness forced him to return to the surface.
The scoured and furrowed seabed around the two sections of fuselage is littered with small pieces of wreckage.
Eight divers from the Warrego will begin attaching cables to the fuselage sections at first light tomorrow.
The Warrego winches can raise loads of up to two tons. The oil slick above the wreckage was spotted at 4.15 today by the Department of Civil Aviation superintendent of operations (Mr. E. Fry) and the department’s examiner of airmen (Mr. C. Hibbert).
RECONSTRUCTION PLAN
The navy ship H.M.A.S. Kimbla will arrive from Sydney tomorrow in case it is needed to help raise the wreckage.
The Department of Civil Aviation accepted the navy’s offer to send the Kimbla because it was not sure if the weight of the fuselage sections would overtax the Warrego’s equipment.
The department investigators place great stress on recovering the wreckage in its present condition so that they can do a mock-up reconstruction to try to determine the cause of the crash.
The HMAS Warrego carrying out the recovery operationCredit:Stuart MacGladrie
They have also ordered an aircraft to stand by, ready to fly another 10 navy divers from Sydney should their help be needed.
Civil Aviation department experts trying to find the cause of the crash hope to reconstruct the plane on a wooden frame from the wreckage found at sea.
The frame will be built at Mackay and on it will be fastened every fragment no matter how small in its proper position.
D.C.A. senior air safety officer (Mr. Jim Green) of Melbourne said that even if this did not yield direct information on what actually caused the fatal plunge it could help determine measures which might be needed to improve safety.
Reconstruction of wreckage had proved helpful in solving aviation disasters notable in the case of the early models of the British Comet jet airliner when parts dredged up in the Mediterranean had been put together and had shown how the jetliner crashed.
Fragments of floating wreckage from the interior of the plane which have been found so far have not yet given any clues.
D.C.A. investigators say the Friendship is one of the strongest aircraft ever designed and its airframe was built to give a flying life of at least 30,000 hours in the air.
The Abel Tasman had flown only a small fraction of this time in the air.
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