No Man's Land by Kevin Sullivan

Author:Kevin Sullivan
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: ABC Books
Published: 2019-05-04T00:00:00+00:00

17.

Somewhere in Europe, my daughter and her boyfriend arrive at their next destination, check in to their hotel and settle into their room. My text message has my daughter on edge as they turn on the television to the English channel for CNN. Plastered on the screen is the ‘breaking story’ of the Qantas flight from Singapore to Perth, and the ensuing emergency landing in remote Western Australia with multiple casualties.

‘Dad was flying to Perth today. It must be him!’

Her boyfriend offers his feeling that someone else is involved in this accident, not me, but she has received a text message like this before from me and is certain I’m involved in this disaster.

There isn’t much information due to the remoteness of Learmonth. She tries to call my mobile phone but it diverts to message bank. Her concern grows as fast as her sorrow; at least she knows I’m ‘okay’ from my text message. She’s desperate for more information but it will be hours before I can speak with her.

*

At the Exmouth Medical Centre, the staff are working quickly and methodically. The facility is working at overcapacity, with six beds to cater for the twenty seriously injured. As they arrive, they’re X-rayed to see if there’s evidence of spinal injury.

The Casey family is here, finally reunited and resting after their examination. Diana and Peter have been cleared of spinal injury, but they’ll require more tests to determine the full extent of their injuries. Diana’s shoulder is now quite stiff, and Peter’s face is swelling and changing colour in response to his violent collision with the ceiling. They’re resting in adjoining beds, their daughters nearby, as they await information on their airlift arrangements to Perth, courtesy of the Royal Flying Doctors. There’s calm in the eye of the storm.

Then a nurse tells them that their daughters must return alone to the airport for their airlift flight. The air ambulance doesn’t have enough room to transport them all together. Diana pleads with the medical staff to make other arrangements to keep the family together, but her request can’t be granted. Her distraught daughters are in tears as they’re led away. One of the assisting female doctors, who has been using her own private vehicle to ferry passengers to and from the medical centre, volunteers to take Diana’s girls back to the airport.

Soon Diana and Peter are loaded into an ambulance for the thirty-minute drive to Learmonth Airport. Although the medical staff have cleared them to fly, Diana can’t move her shoulder, despite some pain-relief injections, and Peter’s face has swelled to the point of closing his left eye. He’s had a tough twelve months battling a serious medical condition, and Diana refuses to leave his side.

*

The Qantas Link 717 arrives. It shuts down its engines and disgorges its load of support personnel.

Another wave of activity approaches. Two representatives of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) have arrived. It turns out the aircraft has been placed in lockdown by the ATSB to facilitate their investigative processes.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.