Dropping In, Uninvited
For years, Airport Managers have told residents living near
airports that planes don't fall out of the sky.
Events on Saturday, June 6th, 1998 proved that such powerful
positive thinking on the part of Airport Managers can do little to
stop the reality...
Sydney, 11 am, Saturday, June 6, 1998, as
reported in Sunday Telegraph June 7th:
Two planes flying over a Sydney housing estate clipped at 100
ft, sending one crashing into a home and killing the two people on
board.
While neighbours mowed lawns and children played nearby, the
aircraft dropped "like a brick", destroying the rear of the house
at 14 Arnold Ave, Green Valley.
Residents ran for cover as aviation fuel gushed from the wrecked
plane, then engine of which had broken off and landed in the
backyard.
The second aircraft, a Piper Cherokee Archer, crash-landed at
nearby Hoxton Park airport, where its pilot, Ian Campbell, walked
away unhurt.
But a man and a woman, both in their 50s, inside the two-seater
Piper Tomahawk were killed instantly.
Miraculously, no one was inside the home at the time. A
neighbour said the owners were on holidays...
Residents around the crash site, in Sydney's south-west, were
evacuated in case the wreck exploded.
Barry Sargeant, Sydney manager of the Bureau of Air Safety
Investigation, said he did not know how the two planes hit.
But he said they collided just east of the airport at about 1000
feet.
"The Tomahawk has apparently suffered from major structural
damage, causing a loss of control", he said.
Mr Sargeant said the plane then plunged steeply, landing on the
house.
"Certainly, the weather conditions were very good, there was not
obstruction to vision," he said.
"How they both did not see each other is a bit of a mystery"
...
Fire Brigade Superintendent John Bowles said the plane was
"totally destroyed". The engine was found five metres away from the
fuselage wreckage in the backyard.
"It's a miracle that the aircraft dropped onto one house and not
a couple, and that there has been no fire," Supt Bowles said.
"It's aviation fuel, so it is very flammable and if it had
exploded, it could have ignited the entire house and possibly the
houses around it"
The Sunday Telegraph goes on to report that residents have lived
in fear of such an event for years.
It was diving straight for us
The Sunday Herald reported-
"Up to 15 children at a party watched terrified
as a plane plunged out of control toward their home after two light
aircraft collided.
"We thought it was aiming right for us," said Lam Ho, 14, "I'm
so happy that I'm alive now, because I thought I was gone".
Two people on board the light plane were killed when it crashed
through the roof and into a rear room of the house at 16 Arnold
Avenue, Green Valley...
The Ho family said 10 to 15 children, many aged under 10, and
about six adults, were in the Ho house and backyard at the time,
preparing for the party.
Lam Ho was in the kitchen of her mother's house when the plane
crashed less than 15 metres from her.
"We all cried and I ran," she said. Her house is behind the
house where the plane fell...
The accident has prompted State MP for Liverpool, Paul Lynch, to
call for closure of the airport. The aerodrome did not have a
control tower.
Why Did it Happen
The Bureau of Air Safety & Investigations will be conducting
a full inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the crash.
Later media reports indicated that both pilots were out for a
day's practice flying (logging hours to keep their licenses
current). Both were flying between Bankstown Airport and Hoxton
Park Airport, using aircraft hired from Bankstown Flying Clubs.
BASI's report (Occurrence
199802022) was released under the cover of Christmas 1999 (23rd
Dec, 1999) - some 18 months after the incident. All the "should
have's" are sheeted home to the pilot killed in the incident (whoa
! now there's a great surprise). The claim of the surviving pilot
that he heard no broadcast from the deceased pilot could not be
verified - there is no control tower at Hoxton Park. So, in the
face of the possibility that one position broadcast didn't work,
BASI wants us to accept that more of the same will work better.
The only protection offered to residents was that procedures
should be modified to have pilots make additional broadcasts of
their approach to the airport.
This is something we can be sure learner pilots will
scrupulously comply with, and of course it's going to cost the
airport owners heaps to comply with this.
Naturally, airport shareholders, pilots and pro-aviation groups
seemed happy with this. But residents and politicians from the
Hoxton Park area were clearly less than happy, and could wonder
about the conflict of interest between the airport shareholder (a
government department) and the investigator (a government
department).
Hoxton Park Airport
Hoxton Park is a single-strip airport some 13 km west from
Bankstown Airport. Hoxton Park has around 100,000 movements in
1995/96 and estimated capacity of 120,000 movements per annum. It
was built originally during World War II as a back-up strip for
Bankstown Airport (in case Bankstown was bombed out).
Together with the 28th May, 1998 near
crash at Bankstown Airport, this incident proves that airspace
in the South West of Sydney is now too congested and a serious
threat to residents.
Does it make any sense at all to be bringing more aircraft into
this airspace for the Olympics ? Or any other reason ?
First published June .26
th, 1998.
Last Revised
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