Devastating moment

Many assumed it was a bonfire on a neighbouring property.

Most of those who witnessed it were waiting in the small airport terminal, all of them expecting friends and family home for the weekend.

Young Fire Captain Don Smyth was at the airport with his wife, waiting for his son’s flight from Sydney to arrive. 

Two planes were due to arrive. Only one taxied in.

The idea of a plane crash seemed incomprehensible but a chill slowly trickled through the assembled group. 

The remaining flight operated by Monarch Air had crashed two kilometres south of the airport at 7pm, June 11, 1993.

And until the one aircraft pulled up no-one knew who was on the flight that crashed.

Don, along with other onlookers, had an agonising wait to find out which plane his son was on.

“As soon as they (onlookers) saw that plane, some were relieved and some weren’t,” Don said.

“But I wasn’t convinced until I saw his smiling face at the window, because he didn’t know what had happened either.”

Seven people lost their lives, that night - including three teenage girls returning home from boarding school in Sydney - in one of the worst aviation disasters the state has seen. 

And Don was more than a witness to the crash.

“Being a firie, my first thought was to get back to town, to get out to the site, to see what I could do to help. When I got to town, they hadn’t even been called,” he said.

Les Canellis was the senior operations manager for Young Police at the time of the crash and oversaw the local investigation.

He was at the pub when he first heard reports of the disaster and immediately left for the scene.

He recalled the near apocalyptic weather on the night.

“That night was amongst the worst weather I’ve ever seen in  Young, “ Les said.

“The weather was just… it was just a killer out there, that night I think it was minus 10 or something, the next day it got down to minus 18…there was howling wind.

“That was such a cow of a four or five days, weather wise,  everything went towards making it the most miserable situation you could ever imagine.”

Les and Don had both seen their fair share of disasters; however the scene that met them was unlike anything they had confronted. 

 “Over years I’ve been a firie, I’ve seen a hell of a lot but that was the worst,” Don said.

“Speaking for the firies, we were tighter knit afterwards, because we had been through that together. All the emergency services, we sort of talked amongst ourselves and got through it that way.”

The Bureau of Safety report issued after the investigation said the flight ploughed into the side of a hill, clipping the crown of a tree 12 metres above ground.

 It then hurtled another 50 metres, before the left wing hit a second tree. Forty metres on it struck a third tree, breaking up on impact.

It also gave a damning assessment of Monarch Air, finding it put financial savings ahead of safety.

There was only one person who survived the initial impact.

Still in her seat when emergency services arrived suffering from extensive burns to her body it was Don’s job to remove her for the paramedics.

She died in hospital the next day.

And it was the way the community responded in the days after the tragedy that Les found most striking.

He said the town came together in the face of disaster.  

“The thing that amazed me was that, if something happens in a small town, gossip mills start, but after the initial crash, the next morning, no one was asking questions, or making things up, everyone was in shock,” he said.

“From my point of view it was just so amazing the way that everybody just came together. 

“The town really did just take a deep breath and for once, the town was just, there was no hassle, or arguments or blame.”

Les found a necklance belonging to one of the girls who died in the crash. Being badly damaged,  he didn’t know what to do with it.

“I took it down to Stuart’s (jewelers) and they spent hours cleaning it up, making it look perfect. They had no hint of, ‘it’s too hard’, or ‘I don’t like the idea’, or ‘I should be paid’…little things like that stood out,” he said.  

The disaster had a profound effect on how emergency services worked in the future, realising the value of collaboration. 

“For the guys that were here, it made a big difference, everybody could depend on everyone else,” Les said.

“Earlier than that there was always (a sense that)…knowledge was power and you don’t give up your knowledge or you’ll lose power, but after that I think the lesson was learnt, a lot more can be done, a lot quicker by everyone working together.”

There was also anger, however, when it was revealed in later investigations that the accident was an avoidable disaster.

Don Smyth still has all the media clippings and investigations from the time.

Cutting corners ultimately cost the lives of seven people, and left Young reeling. 

“The big problem was, just about everybody in town knew at least one person on the plane and everybody was just stunned,” Les said.

“Air crashes are something that don’t happen over here, how could it happen?”