Air Accidents and RAN Salvage Operations

[airlana]

Rather than risk 'thread drift' to "Kooka's" excellent ongoing "Ship of the Day" thread, it seems better to start afresh.
"Kooka's" recent post #226 "Ship of the Day" once again highlighted the work of the RAN during salvage operations following aviation accidents.

Originally Posted by kookaburra

In November 1961 a Vickers Viscount airline crashed in Botany Bay with the loss of 15 lives. HMAS Walrus, and the Boom Defence Vessel HMAS Kimbla and the RAN Clearance Diving Team took part in the salvage operations.

Fortunately we haven't had any major air accidents in recent years, but back in the 1960's we sadly had two, both at night, both crashed into the sea and in both the RAN played a vital role in salvaging parts of the aircraft to enable investigations into the causes.

Aircraft accidents are nearly always front page news and understandably so but the work of salvage teams usually gets little or no media attention. Often working in difficult and dangerous conditions, for weeks on end, their work receives little recognition outside of the authorities involved in the accident. Not to mention the most unpleasant task of body recovery, which for obvious reasons I have not dwelt on in the following posts. Investigations into aircraft accidents rely heavily on examination of the wreckage and in the case of crashes into the sea, recovery of the wreckage would sometimes not be possible without the work of the Navy Clearance Diving Teams.

The two posts that follow give an insight into the work of these ‘unsung heroes’ of the RAN.

Much of the information has been sourced from “Air Crash Vol.2” by Macarthur Job and also the RAN Clearance Divers Association.
http://www.rancd-association.com/


Finally, some pictures of the ships involved – HMAS Warrego, Kimbla and Walrus

[airlana]

On Friday 10th June 1960 a TAA Fokker F27 Friendship VH-TFB "Abel Tasman" was on the regular evening flight from Brisbane to Mackay, with 25 passengers and crew of 4. Approaching Mackay, the aircraft was advised that the airport was covered in fog, and after two unsuccessful attempts at landing, the crew elected to hold off the coast and wait for the fog to clear. Just after 10pm the aircraft was cleared to land, approaching the runway from the south east over the sea. Within minutes the aircraft was reported as missing and search and rescue operations underway. With no reports of any crash on land, it soon became apparent the aircraft had crashed into the sea. The Navy immediately responded by providing HMAS Warrego, which was doing survey work off the Queensland coast, to assist with salvage operations. In addition, arrangements were made to fly a team of specialist divers to Mackay from the Navy's diving school in Sydney.

Small local craft scoured the area throughout the following day, but apart from small floating wreckage and several bodies, the remains of the aircraft eluded the searchers.

The work continued on Sunday 12, the small craft being joined during the morning by HMAS Warrego. Using its echo sounding equipment, the Navy sloop began a search of the seabed beneath the holding pattern VH-TFB had been flying. At about 4pm, the crew of one of the Departmental aircraft sighted a 100 yard long oil slick some four nm further to the south-west, and directed the ship to the spot. Twenty minutes later, the naval vessel’s echo sounders indicated a promising response on the seabed in 40 feet of water. The ship dropped anchor and a diver went down to investigate, finding major sections of VH-TFB tail assembly, including its little damaged fin and rudder. In the short time that remained before darkness fell, the diver also found a portion of the rear fuselage.
At 6.30am on the Monday morning divers from HMAS Warrego went down to more thoroughly explore the seabed beneath the oil slick. Not far from the tail and rear fuselage wreckage they found both the aircraft’s propellers. The wing, with the engines and the forward section of the fuselage, including the nose and cockpit, was found on the seabed 170 yards further to the south-west. In between the two main sections of wreckage lay numerous smaller sections of the fuselage structure.

Later in the day, while Warrego’s crew began salvage operations, the Navy’s sturdy boom defence ship, HMAS Kimbla based at Garden Island in Sydney, made preparations to sail that night for Mackay. It joined Warrego over the wreckage site four days later on Friday 17.
The total salvage task lasted two weeks, during which sections of wreckage were recovered daily and landed progressively on Mackay Harbour’s north wharf. Here, the engineers and surveyors of the investigation team’s Structures Group assembled the wreckage for examination in the wharf shed. The biggest single item of wreckage, a 95ft wing section with both engines still attached, was raised by Warrego on Thursday 23 and landed later the same day.
Two MBE’s and a BEM were subsequently awarded to Navy personnel in recognition for their work in this salvage operation

[airlana]

Less than two years were to pass before tragedy struck again. A little after 7.00pm on Thursday 30th November 1961, an Ansett –ANA Vickers 720 Viscount VH-TVC aircraft departed Sydney Airport bound for Canberra with 11 passengers and crew of 4 onboard. Weather conditions were far from good, with storms and heavy rain in the area. Previous aircraft had reported experiencing “exceptionally severe turbulence”. Within minutes, both radio and radar contact was lost with the aircraft. Once again, with no reports of an aircraft crashing on land, there could be only one inference – the aircraft had crashed into the sea. Later that night an air-sea rescue launch conducted a circuit of Botany Bay, adjacent to Sydney Airport, without sighting any wreckage.
At first light in the morning, Friday 1 December, DC-3s from Airlines of NSW and TAA began scouring the open sea off the coast to the east, while a helicopter and numerous motor launches, braving the weather, searched the waters of Botany Bay to the south. At 6.30am the helicopter, investigating an oil slick about halt a mile south-west of Bumborah Point near Bunnerong Power station, sighted what looked like a torn seat cushion floating in the water, and the Departmental air-sea rescue launch was despatched to the area to recover it. Airline staff identified it as upholstery from one of the Viscount’s cockpit seats.

Meanwhile, searchers checking the north-eastern beaches of Botany Bay near Bunnerong power station came upon various small items of cabin furnishings washed ashore. Amongst them was far more grisly evidence that disaster had overtaken the Viscount — scattered human remains.

Morning radio bulletins flashed news of the drama around the nation — the first fatal accident to an aircraft flying under the Ansett flag in a quarter of a century of daily operations.

In Melbourne, a hurriedly assembled team of investigators — the first of a total contingent of 30— left for Sydney by Departmental Fokker Friendship, spending the time in flight planning their strategy. As at
Mackay the previous year, the team would be split into groups, each charged with a specific aspect of the total investigation task.

At about 8.30am, Royal Australian Navy divers from Garden Island joined the Departmental air-sea rescue launch at La Perouse jetty to cross to Kurnell to check a number of oil slicks on the water to the west of the Kurnell Oil Refinery wharf. Visibility in and out of the water was poor because of the rain, but presently a police launch drew their attention to an aluminium structure protruding from the water off Bonna Point at the south-western tip of Kurnell Beach. It proved to be the tip of the Viscount’s submerged outer starboard wing, lying in about 12 feet of water. The identification of the wreckage unmistakable — the aircraft’s registration lettering, VH-TVC, was there on the wing for all to see.

Returning later in the morning to the extensive oil slick off Bunnerong where the seat upholstery had apparently come to the surface, the Navy divers joined a police diving party which had recovered a blood stained seat cushion, cabin fabric, and human remains. Manoeuvring the vessel further upwind into the slick and going over the side again to investigate, the divers came upon the disintegrated main wreckage of the aircraft scattered over the bottom in 25 feet of water.

The following morning, Saturday 2 December, HMAS Kimbla, the boom defence vessel which assisted in the salvage of VH-TFB’s wreckage at Mackay the year before, arrived in Botany Bay from Garden Island and anchored over the wreckage. The ship remained there for the next four days, during which Navy and police divers worked hard to recover all the major sections of the wreckage. In conjunction with the investigation team’s Aviation Medical Group, the remains of all the aircraft’s occupants were also accounted for and identi fled The wreckage, lifted on to the ship’s deck, was progressively landed on the Bunnerong wharf. From there it was taken by lorry to the Department of CivilI Aviation’s own hangar at Sydney Airport where the daunting task of investigation began.

On Thursday 7 December, all the heavier wreckage having been lifted from the sea bed, Kimbla was replaced by a smaller Navy work vessel, HMAS Walrus, and the work continued over the main wreckage site for another week. By this stage, investigators piecing together the Viscount’s fragmented structure in the Departmental hangar had established that portions of the tail assembly were still unaccounted for. It was now evident that not only the outer starboard wing, but also the starboard tail plane and elevator, had separated from the aircraft in flight.

The investigators calculated an area of probability in Botany Bay where the missing components were likely to be lying between the location of the starboard wing and the main wreckage, and the crew and divers aboard Walrus set about the “needle in a haystack” task of combing the seabed. It took them another whole month, but their persistence was rewarded by finding four major pieces of the missing wreckage — two sections of the starboard tailplane, and two of the starboard elevator.

With some 85% of VH-TVC’s basic structure, including all four engines and propellers, now recovered, the progressive wreckage examination showed that the starboard outer wing and tailpiane which separated in flight sustained relatively little impact damage, but the remainder of the aircraft had suffered extreme damage and extensive disintegration.
The “Naval Historical Society of Aust” adds …….”and HMAS Kimbla, worked for two months recovering the fuselage, wings and the bodies of victims of the crash. Later after a long difficult search, the starboard tail plane was salvaged. The team comprised many divers before the job was complete but the initial weight was carried by Leut. Ron Hillen, POs Jake Linton, Sandy Brennan, and Allan Jones, LS Mackay, Moore, Asher, Thompson and AB Bill Caton. Apart from the disagreeable nature of the task, danger was high due to the mass of razor sharp metal present and the poor visibility and surging current. Many divers suffered bad cuts and some fell victim to sea sickness in the surge but none failed to keep going. Leut. Tom Parker, Sandy Brennan, Jake Linton and LS Norm Craven were especially named for their initiative, example and fortitude”.

[Jackaroo]

Thanks for that very interesting report Ash.

Cheers
Jack

[kookaburra]

I do agree. Just caught up with this with a first log-on for the day, but exceptionally good work Ash - a real insight into what these men, the Clearance Divers particularly, have to do in times of disaster. Thanks for the work involved in such postings.

[hydroggy]

Originally Posted by airlana

Two MBE’s and a BEM were subsequently awarded to Navy personnel in recognition for their work in this salvage operation

Just for the record Warrego's CO, A/CDR N L SANDERSON was also awarded the OBE for this operation. He always said he would have rather been promoted

[airlana]

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

and to 'hydroggy' re A/CDR N L SANDERSON and his OBE.
A pity this isn't mentioned and recognition given in the many reports I've read over the years of this accident.

A bit more to add to the Mackay crash - from the RAN Clearance Divers Assoc. website;

"Later in the year, a more serious tragedy occurred when a Fokker Friendship aircraft crashed into the sea off Mackay in Queensland. To assist HMA Ships Warrego and Kimbla, MCDT were despatched and in the succeeding days recovered the aircraft and remains. Lt A. Wright RN and AB Harry Bingham of the MCDT were awarded the MBE and BEM respectively. Leut W.J. Roberts of HMAS Warrego, a shallow water diver, was also awarded the MBE and subsequently joined the CD ranks in 1961."

As a general observation, there seems to be plenty of information around on the RANCD in recent years, but not much from the early days in 1950's and 60's. Hopefully someone can add to the thread.

airlana