Mechanical Fault Caused

Lae Air Crash Inter-Department Inquiry Not Made Public

THE breaking of four teeth in the main cog wheel of the blower equipment of the port motor caused the crash of the Guinea Air Traders’ Lockheed aircraft near Lae, New Guinea, on April 18. with the loss of 37 lives.

This information was given privately in September by the manager of the company.

The Civil Aviation Department sent its report on the crash to the Minister for Air two months ago but to date it has not been released to the public despite repeated requests for it. This has led to a suspicion that the Government is try ing to suppress it.

The breaking of the cog-wheel, said GAT manager, had caused the motor to fail suddenly. The pilot had done every thing he could to counter the failure but it was thought that the aircraft, which had just left Lae, had not gained suf ficient height.

Pour of the 37 killed were crew mem bers; the remainder were newly-inden tured native labourers who were being transported to the gold-fields, it was said that the natives were being transported as air-freight (as had long been the custom in New Guinea) and that they had not been provided with seats or safety belts. This caused a howl in Depart mental circles in Canberra. While not explaining how seats or safety belts would have helped anyone in this instance, when the plane had burst into flames immedi ately on hitting the ground, and the occupants had been killed instantly, Mr.

Ward and other Departmental heads had obviously been looking for a scapegoat.

Mr. Ward said, at the time, that no plane in New Guinea had Government approval to carry natives as freight and that he would be amazed if this “pre-war practice were continuing against Government orders.” There would, he said, be an immediate investigation to see whether this had been permitted by Civil Aviation officials.

It was suggested, at the time, that the plane may have been overloaded. This was denied by a company official.

As several months have elapsed since the report was given to the Minister for Air, it seems likely that this, like many

such documents, will sink out of sight in some Canberra pigeon-hole.

In the interests of Guinea Air Traders and New Guinea aviation generally, the findings of the committee of inquiry should be made public. (In the House of Representatives, in Canberra, on September 8, Mr. Ryan (Lib., Vic.) asked the Minister for Civil Avia tion, to state the reason for the un precedented delay in announcing the re sult of the inquiry into the air disaster in New Guinea; and would he make the report available to members of the House.

In reply, the Minister said that the report had been handed to him “only last Satur day week,” that it was very extensive,

and that he was going to read it again to determine what action was necessary to deal with the matter. When Mr.

Ryan asked, again, when members might see it the Minister replied, “I am not pro posing that the honorable member shall see it at all.”) The Governor of New Caledonia, M.

Cournarie, recently paid his first visit to the outlying Loyalty group, where live 12,000 native subjects of France who are generally regarded as the most active and intelligent of all Melanesians. He also visited the Isle of Pines, where the Marist Mission, in August, celebrated its hun dredth anniversary.