scone.com.auNew Search for Missing Plane Begins
TODAY the search continues for missing aircraft VH-MDX in the Barrington in the hope to find the five men who never made it home more than three decades ago.
The search teams have conducted search exercises each year since 1981 and will spend three days searching a concentrated nine kilometre square area, with a greater search area of 40 square kilometres at Gloucester Tops in unforgiving terrain.
The area has been identified after reviewing all evidence with fresh eyes and is based on the theory that the plane was west of the Great Dividing Range near Scone, before it crossed the Barrington and crashed.
See gallery and video of previous searches below.
Caro Ryan, search manager for Bushwalkers Wilderness Rescue Squad said an advance team had spent a few weeks trying to clear access trails and described the conditions the search teams will be facing in the Barrington.
“It is incredibly rugged and steep terrain, where the height of the trees and the density of the canopy some sections have double and triple canopies and it is such that you literally can not see very far in front of you,” said Ms Ryan.
“Quite often in the past we’ve had team members crawling on our hands and knees through vines and scrub and because it is so dense with vines you have no choice but to crawl,” she said.
“We have to cover all limbs from prickly vegetation but also have to wear safety glasses and carry things like secateurs, duct tape to help us with the giant stinging trees which are a feature in that area; I have been stung by one in the past and they have leaves about the size of a dinner plate with very fine hairs on it; a leaf came falling down and brushed against my arm, but it feels like you have had 40 hypodermic needles stick into your skin all at the same time, incredibly painful and it hangs around it took about a month to completely go away, every time you get in a hot shower the pain comes back again; so you use gaffer tape or a wax strip to pull out these ultra fine hairs and they contain a neurotoxin and that’s just one of the things we have to deal with when we go in there,” she said.
“A communications network has been set up, supported by WICEN and because of the terrain and the differences in heights of altitude between where the command post will be and where the searchers are is such that the standard radio networks don’t work, so the guys have been up there establishing a radio network for us with repeater stations across different heights to ensure we do have good communications.
“We are all there to find the aircraft, but we also have to be really careful of our own safety, because it is such rugged, treacherous terrain we have to keep ourselves safe, if someone sprains an ankle, getting them out is an issue,” she said.
The volunteers agree always in the back of their minds are the families of the missing men and they will search every year until the plane is found, but it also helps them prepare for the other worst case scenarios.
“The main reason driving us is to find the five men, but another reason is because in Australia when you think about the vast tracts of wilderness that we do have, just think about what you fly over between Sydney to Melbourne and we’ve never had a major aircraft incident, we’ve never had a remote wilderness major aviation incident in our history so this is so important for all of the agencies to work together to test themselves and prepare for the worst case scenario and know we have trained and tested ourselves in that kind of environment,” said Caro Ryan.
This year, Glen Strkalj from the Bushwalkers Wilderness Rescue Squad will be managing the search with teams from a variety of emergency service groups including the NSW Police Rescue Unit, NSW ambulance, local police, Rural Fire Service specialists, Cessnock District Rescue Squad, Volunteer Rescue If someone twists and ankle just getting them out is difficult.
Read more about the missing aircraft: VH-MDX.
Related story:
WATCH: Video footage of previous searches (no audio).
GALLERY:
