Air Disaster Canberra by Tink Andrew;

Author:Tink, Andrew;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of New South Wales Press

23

Essendon

Having touched down at Essendon, Bob Hitchcock taxied to a position opposite the control tower and left his plane to meet the flying school’s commanding officer. As he began to apologise for interrupting the student pilots, Squadron Leader King assured him that no apology was necessary and congratulated him on a ‘particularly good’ landing. Hitchcock then walked over to the meteorological office where he gave the names of his crew and intended passengers to the duty pilot, James Wilson. John Palmer and Charlie Crosdale meanwhile, had been spotted unloading a ballast of 22 kg sandbags to make room for the VIPs. Dick Wiesener remained on board, unseen by anyone on the ground.1

Just who the Hudson’s passengers would be had remained in doubt for some time. The only certainty was the air minister, James Fairbairn, whose ministerial plane it was. In his typically ebullient way, Fairbairn had invited more of his colleagues to take this flight than could safely be carried. He had no doubt forgotten a question without notice asked the previous year by the member for Richmond, Larry Anthony:

Is it true, as reported in the press, that the government intends to have constructed a special plane for the convenience of ministers travelling to and from capital cities? If the statement that five or six ministers will travel at one time is also correct, is it deemed wise that so many ministers should travel together in the same plane?2

Arthur Fadden, who was the assistant minister for the treasury in August 1940, later recalled:

I attended a cabinet meeting in Melbourne on 12 August 1940 and had pressing commitments in Canberra next day. Jim Fairbairn, Minister for Air, offered me a seat in his plane for the journey to Canberra the following morning. I accepted but during the afternoon he told me with apologies that when he had made the offer he had understood that his secretary, Dick Elford, would return by train. It happened that Dick wished to stay in Melbourne that night to celebrate the… anniversary of his wedding. I readily released Jim from his offer of the seat and travelled back by train.3

The minister for customs, Senator George McLeay, had also been approached to travel on the Hudson. But at the last moment, ‘Mr Pickwick’ declined Fairbairn’s invitation because he wished to use the train trip from Melbourne to Canberra to confer with his comptrollergeneral of customs. Others who were to have flown on the Hudson included Geoffrey Street’s secretary, Percy Hayter and an air ministry official by the name of Tyrrell. However, their seats were taken by General White and Lieutenant-Colonel Thornthwaite.4

Apart from Air Minister Fairbairn, forty-three, the passenger manifest comprised Army Minister Geoffrey Street, forty-six, Information Minister Sir Henry Gullett, sixty-two, Chief of the General Staff Sir Brudenell White, sixty-three, Fairbairn’s private secretary Richard Elford, thirty, and White’s army liaison officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Thornthwaite, fifty. Elford, a former member of the literary staff at The Argus, had a whimsical style. Below the heading ‘Perils of Pantomime’ he

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