Address & Contact Edit
Emu Road
Maralinga
Phone: N/A
Email: N/A
Web: https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/1988/aair/a
On the 9th June 1988, a Cessna 310-R with Registration Number VH-DZH departed
Ceduna on route to Emu to uplift a group of people that were waiting to be collected at Emu. After making a number of serious navigational blunders, the plane could not locate the runway fires that were going to be lit in the event that the plane arrived after dark. Noticing a
camp fire in the vicinity of Len Beadell’s blaze tree,
the pilot thought that it was one of the runway marker fires and banked to make the approach to what he thought was the Emu
airstrip, and this error caused the crash.
Within hours of the plane being declared missing, the Civil Aviation Authority advised the
Coober Pedy Police of the event, with the then Officer in Charge of
Coober Pedy Police, Senior Sargent
John Reed being placed in charge of the search. The following morning on board of Police Aircraft, an official from the CAA arrived at
Coober Pedy and a control centre was set up at the
Coober Pedy Airport, with Detective Hunt and Sargent
Talbot directed by road to
Emu Junction.
During that first day of searching by many fixed wing planes, no trace of the missing plane could be located, and it was not until PM of the following day that the wreckage was located.
The
Coober Pedy Police ground patrol was ordered back to
Coober Pedy, while the Coroners Office flew in an office by Helicopter, landing near the fatal
crash site.
Because of the remote nature of the
crash site, the body was removed from the scene by helicopter and taken out to the
Emu Road, where it was collected by motor vehicle and taken to
Coober Pedy.
Around 10 days after the fatal crash, an Engineer from
Adelaide flew up to the
crash site by helicopter and removed the two engines, and one at a time the engines were flown out to the
Emu Road, where
Coober Pedy locals David White, Jim Reynolds and David Hunt loaded the engines onto a trailer, where they were returned to
Coober Pedy and subsequently transported to Parafield in
Adelaide.
The above
information has been supplied by member Stephen Langman and the above GPS Co-Ordinates are accurate and do not agree with those that were given by the inquest .
If you would like to read the full inquest into the fatal crash, please open the link below.
https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/1988/aair/aair198800718.aspx