A preliminary report into a fatal plane crash involving two members of the Illawarra’s Historical Aircraft Restoration Society has found the pair was piloting the vintage aircraft to a closed airport at the time of the disaster.
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The report also controversially notes that only one of the men – both highly experienced Qantas alumnus – was rated for the aircraft involved, and concludes “crew resource management in the cockpit was found lacking”.
Contrary to early media reports of two fatalities, the Pretoria, South Africa crash claimed a single life.
South African flight engineer Chris Barnard died when the 64-year-old Convair CV-340 ploughed through a Pretoria dairy depot the afternoon of July 10.
An employee of the Moorddrift dairy farm, 20-year-old Thabang Moloto, had both his legs amputated in the crash but survived, according to the Pretoria North Rekord newspaper. The pilots are among eight people seriously injured.
The plane was scheduled to make a return flight from Wonderboom aerodrome to Pilanesburg aerodrome in Rustenburg, 111kms away.
But a preliminary report by the South African Civil Aviation Authority notes the Pilanesburg aerodrome was closed to fixed wing aircraft at the time because a runway was under construction.
This was announced in a ‘notice to airmen’ published prior to take-off, but neither crew or air traffic control at the departing airport were aware of it, the report found.
The Convair was carrying Australian pilots Ross Kelly and Douglas Haywood, Mr Kelly’s wife Lyndal and 16 other passengers when it crashed into power lines, then the depot, nine minutes into the flight.
The report authors interviewed survivors and reviewed footage taken from a GoPro installed in the cockpit. The footage shows a Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer – Chris Barnard – operating the engine controls during the flight, despite his not being part of the crew according to the aircraft flight manual and not being rated on the aircraft as a pilot.
“Although the aircraft is certified for operation by two pilots, it is not clear why the LAME was allowed to operate the engine controls during the operation of the aircraft,” the report says.
“The representative of the current [plane] owner confirmed that in all the previous flights undertaken the LAME was always seated with the crew and allowed to control the engine controls.
“The … owner’s representative also stated that this aircraft was not the first that they had exported with the same LAME in charge of the maintenance and operation of the engine controls during flight.”
The Mercury understands Mr Barnard, Mr Kelly and Mr Haywood were part of the crew that brought another Convair to HARS’ Albion Park museum in August 2016, after a flight lasting 12 days from Wonderboom via South Africa, Mozambique, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Indonesia.
The doomed Convair was being flown for the first time in five months ahead of a trip to its final home, a museum in Amsterdam.
Footage seen by the South African authorities shows the aircraft was “always drifting to the left” early in the flight, and records the captain complaining about the stiffness of the rudder.
The captain was also heard noting the plane’s autofeather light was not illuminating; Mr Barnard tells him it was a defective light bulb.
One of the passengers enters the cockpit and tells Mr Barnard that the left engine is on fire.
The GoPro also showed that the pilots were not sure if they had retracted the landing gears, and they are heard asking one another whether the gears are out or not.
Although already informed, they were then recorded asking each other which engine was on fire.
“At no stage did the pilots or the LAME discuss or attempt to extinguish the left engine fire, as the left engine fire extinguishing system was never activated,” the report says.
The report notes the aircraft flight manual requires two rated pilots to operate the aircraft, “however the documents and licenses made available to investigation team indicates only captain rated on the aircraft”.
Aviation sources have been critical of this and other aspects of the report, suggesting both pilots were in fact rated. Critics say the report is heavily reliant on footage, without input from the injured pilots.
The controller confirmed the crew made a “Mayday” call but said they did not state their emergency. The crew indicated that they intended to land back at the aerodrome as the crash alarm was activated and emergency services were placed on standby They were prioritised and cleared to land but the aircraft kept losing height and never made it back.
One passenger advised the others to be strapped and to adopt the brace position, ahead of impact.
Emergency services use the jaws of life to free the pilots, who were trapped in the cockpit. Both were later placed in induced comas.
Qantas and HARS declined to comment on the mens’ conditions, citing privacy.
Sources say the airline has covered the cost of accommodating their families overseas, and of flying Mr Haywood home on August 13. This Mercury has been unable to confirm this.