The day the horizon disappeared: Graham Egan
In 1976 I was teaching at Mt Hagen Technical College. My three years at Kerema had ended in December 1969 and I was curious to see what the old town looked like. So, during...
Author: president
The first plane at Tari: Quentin Anthony
In 1951 a decision was made to open a new patrol post in the Tari valley of the Southern Highlands of Papua. A suitable site for an airstrip had earlier been located by Sid...
Norseman: Rod Noble
George Oakes’ article in Una Voce, December 2011, mentioned one of the Gibbes-Sepik pilots, Peter Manser. The previous year, 1954, whilst I was at Wewak and Angoram I got to know him and the...
Madang Airport 1973: Bruce O’Reilly
A PATAIR DC3, on charter to TAA, registration VH PNB, left Madang for Mendi on a government charter with building materials (no passengers) and on approach to land discovered it had no brakes and so...
Wewak, Vanimo and the Auster crash of 1953: Peter Skinner
Whenever I hear the words Vanimo, Auster or John McInerney, I have almost instant recall to Wewak, March 1953, and being told by my distraught mother, Marie, that the single-engine Auster owned and piloted...
Kiaps on bikes: Chips MacKellar
(Published in Una Voce, December 1998, page 5) Malcolm (Chips) MacKellar 1953-1955 CPO Daru and Lake Murray (Western District) 1955-1956 P.O. Mount Hagen (Western Highlands District) 1957 ASOPA Long Course 1958-1964 PO at Madang...
In the driver’s seat: Paul Dennett
The first set of wheels that I acquired in PNG, soon after I arrived in my first posting, was a bright red Honda 55 trail bike with an upswept exhaust. I think it cost...
It’s a hard life in the mountains: Dave Lornie
I’ve been waiting, bored and restless, since 8 am at the remote Simbai airstrip for a plane to take me back to Mt Hagen. It is now late afternoon. There’s not a lot to...
MIVA in North Bougainville 1934: Chris Diercke
Rigu strip, N Bougainville 1934 L – R Johnny Sanson, Dr Kroning (of Toberoi Plantation) talking to Fr Tonjes, Rudi Diercke (of Woskawitz Plantation), Peter Berkenheier (camera man). By the 1930s the Catholic...
Balus ikam – Talair PNG in the 1980s: Robin Mead
During the 1980s I worked in Papua New Guinea for Talair, one of the largest third-level airlines in the world, with a mixed fleet of 55 aircraft flying a complex network of scheduled and...
Last flight: Bob Cleland
As related by Julia Lesley Cleland Our second daughter Kathryn was born at home at Balimo in the remote Western District of PNG on my birthday, 8 February 1959. I had planned to go...
Another near miss: Phil Latz
Toward the end of 1969, beginning a new tour of duty, I found myself at Wewak on the mainland of Papua New Guinea, again flying a two passenger Bell G3B1 turbo charged machine. This...
Walking off Mount Otto: Phil Latz
In January 1964, as a licenced helicopter maintenance engineer, I was sent to PNG for the first time. One of the first tasks I remember took place in the Western Highlands when we flew...
Aircraft accidents involving kiaps: Paul Oates
1953: Auster on take-off crashed into Vanimo Harbour. The pilot was killed and passengers District Commissioner Ian Skinner and Assistant District Officer George Wearne were rescued from the submerged aircraft. 1955: Dragon on take-off...
Beating the odds at Aseki: Ben Dannecker
Following a telephone approach by a retired senior air safety journalist, the author was prompted to come forward and share this remarkable tale of survival in an aviation incident that occurred in the pre-independence...
