[BITList] Dak

[David Harvey]

When I was with Burmah Oil and based in Broome we were drilling wells of the Timorese Coast. This involved crew changing from Perth to Broome and then by Nusantara Airways DC3 to Timor.

Pilot and crew were Burmese, damned good pilot but a really laid back character, drank champagne. On one occasion a cyclone was in the offing but the pilot was happy to fly and circle the cyclone. Only problem was some 30 minutes after take off he lost an engine. He returned to Broome where the weather had deteriorated and his approach necessarily very low, he had to lift one wing over a radio tower on the edge of the aerodrome. He elected to land on the grass rather than the runway, wheels up. Safely landed except on engine left the aeroplane and kept going, the other somehow smashed into the 'plane just abaft the co-pilot's head. It is said the pilot was out that gash and around to the passenger door and had it open almost before the 'plane stopped. A bit of an exaggeration of course, but full marks to him, he didn't waste time getting his passengers out. As you say, no escape slides or ladders or anything required. Crazee ruling.



The passengers were unfazed and cheerful at that time. Burmah Oil took them down to the pub (whenever there was such an incident Burma's first action was always to get some beer on hand, We had a helicopter stranded on a desert island, not a crash, and the company chartered a plane and dropped beer to those stranded, at the same time a supply boat was sent but that took 40 hours or so to get there). Back to the passengers though, about an hour after the landing the reaction had set in and they were very quiet lads indeed.

The DC3 was recycled on the acrodrome approach road and used for many years as a Tourist Bureau.

Dave
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