Accident Overview
On a routine flight from Richmond to Avalon, a Boeing 707 carrying five crew members was cruising at 5,000 feet along the coast when it lost altitude and plunged into the sea. The wreckage was recovered approximately one kilometer off Woodside Beach. All five occupants were killed. Weather conditions at the time were reported as good.
Crew
The crew consisted of Captain Mark Lewin (pilot), Flight Lieutenant Tim Ellis (copilot), Flight Lieutenant Mark Duncan (pilot), Warrant Officer Jon Fawcett (flight engineer), and Warrant Officer Al Gwynne (loadmaster).
Official Findings
The Board of Inquiry concluded that the instructor had devised a demonstration of asymmetric flight that was 'inherently dangerous and that was certain to lead to a sudden departure from controlled flight.' The Board noted that the instructor did not appreciate the danger of this maneuver.
Additionally, the Board identified several systemic issues: deficiencies in the acquisition and documentation of 707 operational knowledge within the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), an absence of effective mechanisms to prevent the erosion of operational knowledge during a period of high pilot attrition, a lack of an official 707 QFI conversion course and syllabus, inadequate QFI instructors' manuals, deficiencies in documented procedures and limitations for asymmetric flight, and a lack of fidelity in the RAAF 707 simulator in the relevant flight regime—leading to the need for actual in-flight practice.
The Board stated: 'The captain acted with the best of intentions but without sufficient professional knowledge or understanding of the consequences of the situation in which he placed the aircraft.'