AHSA Monthly Meeting 16 Sep 2020 (Derek Buckmaster: The Wirraway “Newspaper War”)

DerekB16/09/202027/12/2022

Derek Buckmaster gave a presentation on The Wirraway “Newspaper War”.

The AHSA September monthly meeting was held online via Zoom. A recording of the meeting is included below (click the image below to view the video):

2000 Beechcraft Super King Air 200 VH-SKC crashed near Burketown, Queensland on 4 September 2000 after flying pilot-less for over four hours when all eight aboard had earlier suffocated, after depressurisation. The aircraft departed Perth, Western Australia at 1009 UTC on a charter flight to Leonora with one pilot and seven passengers on board. Until 1032 the operation of the aircraft and the communications with the pilot appeared normal. However, shortly after the aircraft had climbed through its assigned altitude, the pilot's speech became significantly impaired and he appeared unable to respond to ATS instructions. Open microphone transmissions over the next 8-minutes revealed the progressive deterioration of the pilot towards unconsciousness and the absence of any sounds of passenger activity in the aircraft. No human response of any kind was detected for the remainder of the flight. Five hours after taking off from Perth, the aircraft impacted the ground near Burketown, Queensland, and was destroyed. There were no survivors. The ATSB had previously recommended mandatory audible depressurisation alarms but CASA did not follow up this action until the next year. Sources: ATSB Investigation number 200003771; The Australian, 13 October 2000; Canberra Times, 8 February 2001. via aph.gov.au website