This weekend, 40 Vietnamese refugees and their relatives will visit the Illawarra to pay an "emotional" tribute to the tracker aircraft which helped save their lives.
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Historical Aircraft Restoration Society volunteer Carl Robinson expected Saturday's event at Albion Park Rail to be a "tearjerker".
"What a reunion it will be," he said. "When they come up that hallway and see that 851 for the first time, it's going to be quite a moment."
HARS' Royal Australian Navy tracker aircraft, the Tracker 851 rescued 99 Vietnamese refugees off the HMAS Melbourne in the South China Sea on June 21, 1981.
The floundering and then lost 13.7m Nghia Hung, known officially as MG-99, was adrift for three days when it was sighted and rescued.
The Tracker 851 was based on the HMAS Melbourne aircraft carrier at the time.
The Melbourne was on its last patrol of the day when it spotted an illumination in the distance, and the tracker flew over and found the MG-99 in distress.
"The rescue was also a unique event as during the Vietnamese boat people crisis of the late 1970's and through the 1980's, Australia's official policy in the South China Sea and related waters was only to assist boats fleeing from Vietnam, (by means) such as re-provisioning them and notifying passing merchant ships," Mr Robinson, formerly a Vietnam War correspondent, said.
"However, with the Admiral on board from a recent joint operation further north with the US Navy, the order was given to assist the floundering vessel.
"They would have sunk if they hadn't been picked up by the Melbourne."
After their rescue, the Vietnamese refugees settled successfully in Australia and kept in regular touch with the HMAS Melbourne's supply officer at the time, John Ingram, with regular get-togethers.
Mr Robinson said HARS was hopeful of hosting a larger event later this year to mark the 40th anniversary of this dramatic event.
In addition to this, at first they were expecting a much smaller exploratory group for this weekend's event.
However, on Saturday, 40 survivors and family of those rescued will visit HARS Museum at Albion Park Rail to see the Tracker 851.
The visiting Sydney-based group will be led by Stephen Nguyen, who was 20 years old at the time of the rescue, and the now 80-year old Captain Nguyen Van Tam of the Nghia Hung.
The Tracker 851 been housed at the HARS Museum for several years.
"Tucked away in a corner of Hangar 1 and dwarfed by the museum's iconic four-engine Lockheed Super Constellation, Tracker 851 is an old regular at HARS and gets a good look-over by visitors with guide commentary among 50 historic commercial and military aircraft," Mr Robinson said.
"In fact, Tracker 851 is one of three Grumman Trackers at HARS and member of its rich Navy Heritage Flight."
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Brendan Crabb
I'm a member of ACM's national property team, covering the Illawarra and South Coast. Based in Albion Park, NSW, I write about exciting, interesting or just downright quirky properties that have been listed for sale, major sales, market trends, auctions and more. One of my favourite aspects of being a journalist is I believe everyone has a story to tell. What's yours?
I'm a member of ACM's national property team, covering the Illawarra and South Coast. Based in Albion Park, NSW, I write about exciting, interesting or just downright quirky properties that have been listed for sale, major sales, market trends, auctions and more. One of my favourite aspects of being a journalist is I believe everyone has a story to tell. What's yours?
