| Port Moresby - Feb. 6th 1969 Flight Crew’s skill in DC-4 mishap Sixteen Qantas engineering staff will have to work for more than a week to make preliminary repairs to the DC-4 "Pacific Trader" which was damaged in an emergency landing at Port Moresby last week. Fifteen Sydney-based engineers, with Port Moresby Station Engineer Denis Tubman, have been working on the disabled ‘Skymaster’ since the weekend and expect to be able to ferry the piston-engined veteran back to Sydney either this coming weekend or early next week. 
Qantas DC-4 Postcard. Three engineers – Keith Cameron, from the sheet metal shop, Noel Manning, DC-4 foreman, and Bob Stevens, Senior Structural Engineer – flew to Port Moresby within hours of the mishap. They were joined on the Saturday by other teams from Sydney to handle the extensive sheet metal repairs, the engine replacement and instrument work. The work is being supervised by Eric Walsh, Assistant Manager Engineering Overhaul. In Port Moresby DCA officials praised the pilot’s skill in handling the situation. COOL BEHAVIOUR In Sydney, Passenger Services executives cabled congratulations to the plane’s cabin crew for their cool behaviour during the emergency. The DC-4 was approaching Port Moresby on a charter flight from Nauru with 60 school children aged between five and seven years old aboard, an adult escort and a crew of 10 commanded by Captain Frank Sander. First Officer Jim Perry, Second Officer Geoff Jensen and Navigator Bob Forbes comprised the rest of the flight crew. In the cabin were Chief Steward Norman Casey, an 11-year veteran with Qantas, Senior Steward Gordon King, Flight Steward Alan Nipperess and Flight Hostess Helen Gooley. Also on the flight were Traffic Officer Cam Dreverman and Norm McLeod, of Brisbane, who was the flight’s travelling maintenance engineer. When Captain Sander selected the landing gear, an hydraulics failure occurred in the nose-wheel area and , although the gear went down, it apparently failed to lock properly. After circling while DCA ground observers checked the position of the gear, Captain Sander began his emergency approach. He touched down and ran almost the length of the strip before he had to apply the brakes. The Skymaster veered off the runway. The nose-wheel, which had been supporting the aircraft’s weight, dipped into soft ground and retracted, dropping down the nose.
Picture from the 'South Pacific Post'. CHILDREN CALM As soon as the aircraft stopped, the cabin crew ordered an immediate evacuation – one of the fastest on local record, according to Port Moresby manager Ken Wightman. "Everybody was out of the aircraft in no more than 45 seconds," Ken reported. After that, Ken’s problems really began. He had to find accommodation for the 61 passengers and 10 crew- and also for many of the 30 or so passengers who were waiting at the airport to fly by Qantas to Hong Kong and beyond. The scheduled Boeing 707 was diverted when the runway was blocked and had to overfly to Manila. (Another flight was scheduled through Port Moresby the next day to pick up the stranded passengers.) Back at the airport, Denis Tubman’s first task was to clear the runway. He persuaded a crowd of local people to get into the ‘Skymaster’ and stand up in the tail section to lighten the weight on the nose. Then he got a low-loader under the nose and used this to tow the aircraft to a hanger. Reprinted from a Qantas News publication. Go here to read a first hand account from Alan Nipperess. | 
