1981 Barrington Tops Cessna 210 disappearance

1981 Barrington Tops Cessna 210 disappearance

A Cessna 210 Centurion similar to the accident aircraft
Accident summary
Date 9 August 1981 (1981-08-09)
Summary Aircraft disappeared following instrument failure
Site Gondwana Forest, Barrington Tops
Passengers 4
Crew 1
Fatalities 5
Survivors 0
Aircraft type Cessna 210
Registration VH-MDX
Flight origin Whitsunday Coast Airport
Stopover Gold Coast Airport
Destination Bankstown Airport

The 1981 Barrington Tops Cessna 210 disappearance relates to the mysterious disappearance of a Cessna 210 flying from Whitsunday Coast Airport to Bankstown Airport via Gold Coast Airport. The last known contact with the aircraft was in the Barrington Tops area. Nothing further was heard and no trace of the aircraft or its occupants has so far been found.

Accident

VH-MDX was a Cessna 210 which disappeared in Australia in 1981. No trace of the aircraft, or occupants, has ever been found. [1][2]

Background

VH-MDX was chartered by four Sydney workmates for a flight back from the Whitsunday Coast Airport on Sunday 9 August 1981. The men had been sailing in the Whitsunday Passage.[3] MDX stopped to refuel at Gold Coast Airport near Coolangatta and took off again at 5:02 p.m. The pilot had submitted a flight plan following the coast to Taree thence inland via Craven and Singleton to Bankstown, a suburb of Sydney. [4]

Disappearance

Shortly after passing Craven, the pilot reported that the aircraft's artificial horizon and gyroscopic direction indicator had failed. At that time, the aircraft was identified by radar near the Barrington Tops, about 40 km (22 nmi; 25 mi) North-West of the planned track.[5] The aircraft's subsequent course is not clear but the pilot reported violent weather with strong down-draughts and descent below the minimum safe altitude for the aircraft's location..[1]

Searches

There have been many air-based and ground-based searches since the disappearance. Technologies employed include satellite imagery, aerial photography, magnetometry and chemical sampling of water downstream from the search area.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 Keene, Neil (6 August 2015). "Barrington Tops Cessna crash: Have we been searching in the wrong place for flight VH-MDX?". Dailytelegraph. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  2. ↑ Gerard57 (11 October 2013). "ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 161392". Retrieved 16 November 2015.
  3. ↑ "Barrington Tops refuses to yield the 32-year mystery of the missing Cessna". 30 November 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  4. ↑ Readford, Donald A and Donovan, Garry, "Operation Phoenix, The Theoretical Search for the Crash Site of Cessna C-210 MDX", 2014 edition
  5. ↑ "Aviation safety investigations & reports". Australian Transport Safety Bureau. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  6. ↑ "VH-MDX Search" (PDF). Bushwalkers Wilderness Rescue Squad. 5 December 2014.
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