[FlashDrive (Poppy)]

Originally Posted by Kunama

Those guys had no chance, it actually happened at the same location in September 1977, I had just left the Army and my mate had just joined the RAAF.

I know the event very well and was given the ' true ' events to what happened.....straight from the mouth of Flt Lieutenant Lester Cavanagh ...Navigator F-111C....and I actually spoke to the Pilot of that ill fated plane just 3 weeks earlier.
The Pilots name was John Holt...he was promoted to Squadron Leader in 1977
I spoke to him on the tarmac at RAAF Edinburgh SA....( I had just been posted to 11SQN to work on the P3B Orion Aircraft )...he had just flown in and was there to do some Nav' training with new Navigators from RAAF Sale ...which was the School of Air Navigation....they were conducting Nav' sorties from Edinburgh.

3 weeks later....John was killed and with a Navigator I did not know.
They were doing a ' low level ' high speed ( 500kts ) bombing run at Evans Head NSW.
They were approaching the target when the aircraft ' struck ' a flock of Albatross birds ( average bird weighs 4kg ) at 500kts....aircraft went down....It made headline news on Television and I was ' numb ' when I heard about it. I had worked along side John and his aircraft for 3 years at Amberley.

The aircraft windshield was ' smashed ' and a bird had ' struck ' John in the face killing him instantly ( they did an autopsy on John and found Albatross blood in his lungs ) ...that confirmed the bird strike.
The Aircraft immediately ' pitched ' up and went into an inverted roll and crashed ' upside down ' into the ground at high speed.....both Aircrew were lost.

BTW....It takes an enormous amount of force to ' break/smash an Aircraft's Windshield.....Aviation Grade Perspex is extremely hard.
The above account was told to me in person by Flt Lieutenant Lester Cavanagh who had flown with John many times with No 1 Squadron at Amberley.

36 years have passed since then.....

Flash.......