Qantas 747-400 OJA: old girl's final flight

Among the audience of the grand old dame’s swansong were those who had been there in the beginning – the Qantas employees, now long retired themselves, here to see the beautiful bird  come into land for the very last time.

Land she did – almost on cue – with as much style and grace as she could smoothly muster under the constrained circumstances.

The Boeing 747-400 touched down just after 7.48am and did not disappoint the thousands of people who had risen before dawn to claim the best vantage spot to witness a spectacular end to a long and productive career.

Soon after disembarking,  Qantas captain Greg Matthews handed over the keys to the aircraft in an emotional exchange to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society’s (HARS) president Bob De La Hunty.

‘‘This aircraft has been with Qantas for 25 years, we’ve looked after it, we’ve loved it...it’s now time for us to present it to HARS,’’ he said.

Mr De La Hunty described the gift as ‘‘unbelievable’’.

Watching from the HARS hanger were three of the four original pilots and many other crew members who had been on the  inaugural non-stop flight from London to Sydney, completed in a record-breaking 20 hours and five minutes.

The experts had said it couldn’t be done, but in true Australian spirit, Qantas captain and commander David Massy-Greene, orchestrated a two-year plan which proved them all wrong. Most of it shrouded in secrecy so as not to tip off British Airways which had received a 747-400  months before the Australians.

‘‘I don’t usually take very kindly to being told it can’t be done, it makes me more determined to prove that it can,’’ Mr Massy-Greene said. ‘‘But it was all done in secret as we were concerned our British cousins might beat us to it.’’

Now 71, Mr Massy-Greene said being responsible for the introduction of the aircraft into service was a  highlight of his career.

He explained that the non-stop flight was an important milestone and message to the Australian public.

‘‘Australia has always been very isolated by distance, and we wanted to demonstrate that a non-stop flight was possible,’’ he said. ‘‘In doing so we were able to demonstrate the technical excellence of Qantas.’’

There were only 23 people, including crew, on board that flight in 1989 and weather and fuel were critical to the mission’s success.

‘‘We needed a certain amount of tail wind to assist us,’’ Mr Massy-Greene said. ‘‘We also needed specially brewed heavy fuel which we obtained from a German oil refinery. The crude oil had been originally destined to make some special plastics. When the company found out it had been turned into aviation fuel the boss of the German plant nearly lost of his job, but all that changed when we made the flight. Everyone was happy then.’’

Mr Massy-Greene said the introduction of the 747-400 to the fleet heralded a new era.

‘‘Under the skin it was different from anything we had ever had,’’ he said. ‘‘It was a complete move from an analogue system to digital.’’

Former captain Ray Heiniger, now 72, was  in the right-hand seat of the world record flight.

‘‘It was special,’’ he said. ‘‘The 747-400 is easy to fly, it’s a delight to operate. It was the biggest aircraft I had ever flown back then. It’s a lovely, old aircraft and it’s a bit sad to see the old girl go out of service. It only seems like yesterday that we broke that record. But I guess we’re all lot older – the plane included.’’

Former captain Rob Greenop, 78, said while the non-stop flight had been uneventful, it was the welcome home party he remembers most.

‘‘When we arrived on the taxiway in Sydney it was lined with Qantas staff,’’ he said. ‘‘I’d never had such a welcome in all my life.’’

Mr Greenop was pleased to see the City of Canberra being given a new lease of life as a tourist attraction.

‘‘If it wasn’t here at HARS it would probably be sitting in the sand of a plane graveyard in Nevada and maybe a breaker’s truck would be arriving to rip parts of it off,’’ he said. ‘‘I feel a lot of affection for the old OJA. It’s great to see her being preserved. I’ve got a five-year-old grandson who one day will come here and say: ‘My grandpa flew that thing’.’’

John Hewitt, a former electrical engineer for Qantas, said that a small technical hitch a few hours before departure almost cancelled the historic 1989 flight.

‘‘The auto auxiliary power unit shut down and I had to climb up on the tail and replace a part.’’

After having worked much of the night and managing only two hours’ sleep Mr Hewitt said, once they were up in the air, the technical team slept in the crew bunks only to be woken four hours later from the cold.

‘‘We went down to the cockpit and they told us they had turned the airconditioning off in that section of the plane to save fuel,’’ said Mr Hewitt. ‘‘It was minus 51 degrees Celsius outside the aircraft so you can imagine how cold it was in the bunks.’’

Former Qantas aircraft engineer and HARS member Graham Smith, 78, had also been sent to Seattle to ensure quality control.

‘‘We wanted to make sure it was up to Qantas standards,’’ he said. ‘‘For me it was exciting to be playing with such a big aeroplane.’’

Neil Tazewell, 74, was another Qantas engineer sent to inspect the jumbo’s construction.

‘‘I accepted the aeroplane mechanically for the first time for departure,’’ he said. ‘‘I feel very heartened today to see that it’s still in such great working order. I can’t tell you how magnificent it is to be here, to see an aircraft at the start and end of its working life is really something.’’