Men Who Killed Qantas - Matthew Benns [17]
Matters were not helped by the British attitude towards Australia at the time. Royal Air Force (RAF) navigation expert D. C. T. Bennett was visiting Melbourne after the Centenary Air Race and said: ‘Some sections of Australian opinion seemed to have jumped to the very groundless conclusion that the DH86s have a serious defect. To say that a machine breaks up in the air is a pretty grave accusation when there is really nothing to support it. I have also heard the opinion that while the design might be satisfactory the construction could be faulty. But the inspection routine at de Havilland – as in England generally – is so searching that I do not think such a thing could happen. In Australia, maintenance regulations are not nearly so rigidly enforced.’8
Civil Aviation director Johnston decided to call together as many experts as he could muster to try to establish ‘that every feature, structural or otherwise, is beyond suspicion’.9 Attending this conference were Fysh, Brain and Baird from Qantas, plus representatives from Holyman, de Havilland, Sydney and Melbourne universities, and just about every related government department, including the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Wing Commander Wackett once again presented his doubts about the DH86, suggesting that the torsional bracing of the wings might not provide enough stability in situations where sideslip occurred. The Qantas view, expressed by Fysh with the entire Empire airmail service riding on the success of the plane Qantas had helped design, said that de Havilland and the Air Ministry in London knew best.
Johnston opted for a test of the DH86 to see if wing torsioning was a problem. Holyman’s DH86 Lepena was emptied of her seats and fitted with monitoring equipment. A test crew was sent up with parachutes in case they did find what was causing the plane to drop out of the sky. After an hour of testing they landed, much relieved but no wiser. Similarly, a trip to England to tell de Havilland and the Air Ministry about Australian concerns regarding the DH86 was given a very cool reception. And then, two months later, the Lepena, on a routine flight from Launceston to Melbourne, sent out an emergency signal that the port lower wing strut had gone and made an emergency landing off Hunter Island. The DH86 certificates of airworthiness were suspended and the plane was inspected to finally find out what was wrong. But there was nothing wrong with the Lepena. The incident proved pilots and crew also had their doubts about the DH86 but the certificates of airworthiness were reinstated.
Had Brain spoken up at the meeting of experts, there is every chance he could have prevented the final DH86 disaster. In 1942 World War Two was raging and Qantas was running on a makeshift number of planes, including two DH86s returned to it by the RAAF. On 20 February 1942, the day after the Japanese bombed Darwin, Captain C. H. Swaffield took off from Archerfield, near Brisbane in rain and low cloud with seven wartime priority passengers. The plane took off normally but minutes later plunged into trees on Mount Pirie on the outskirts of Brisbane. By the time a Civil Aviation Department official arrived to inspect the wreckage the next day, it had been burned. Queensland’s Senior Department Aircraft Inspector had decided there was nothing to see because the plane was smashed to matchwood. The tail was found more than one and a half kilometres from the crash site and appeared to have broken away from the plane in flight, while under a heavy side pressure such as occurs when a plane spins out of control.
Fysh disagreed. ‘After the flying boats came on in 1938 and our old pilots went to them, the DH86 aircraft continued to operate on the inland run between Brisbane and Darwin. This aeroplane required good pilot training and undoubtedly our standard had dropped on this secondary service. We experienced a number of accidents;