Speedboats from the festival swarmed the island as the plane continued to burn. Eric Henshaw and John Paine were among them. They scrambled up the bank and sprinted towards the wreck, only to be forced back by the heat of the flames.
“[The plane] burst into flames, and when we got to the island, we couldn’t get close to do anything because of the heat,” John later told the press. Even the police constable who followed Eric and John from a Taree wharf confirmed nothing could be done to save the pilot and his passenger.
Eric and John had been roaring along the Manning River mid-race when they spotted James Morgan and Monica Nolan‘s silver Wackett monoplane.
“Give these chaps a wave,” Eric said from the boat’s helm. “One of them is my mate.” James and Monica had flown from Newcastle to participate in the Taree Aquatic Festival.1 No fear-induced pleas from Monica’s father for her not to fly that day of 30 January 1954 had stopped them.2 They were to land at Cundletown but found themselves flying forty feet above Eric and John’s boat.
No sooner did Eric and John, along with hundreds of morning festival-goers, witness VH-AFG – believed to be experiencing engine trouble – sideslip on a sharp turn and plummet nose-first into Dumaresq Island. Smoke filled its path, and the flames took hold.3
Author: Kaylah McGilvray
References:
1 The Northern Champion, Saturday 30 January 1954, 1, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/231330244; Friday 26 February 1954, 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/161022562
2 The Daily Telegraph, Sunday 31 January 1954, 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/248763832
3 The Northern Champion, Saturday 30 January 1954, 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/231330244; Friday 26 February 1954, 1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/161022562
