CRASH A2-379 29 July 1977 IRIAN JAYA OPERATION CENDERAWASIH 1977 I am Patrick (Paddy) Sinclair, the last surviving crew member from the fatal crash of A2-379 I think the co-pilot is the last remaining crew member of A2-149. Below are some of my recollections of the 29July1977 accident:It had been planned that A2-149 was to do both sorties as A2-379 was getting short on service hours, but after consultation with the missionary pilots it was decided because of imminent bad weather, that both aircraft would be used. We then proceeded to load 379. As the winch was on the left-hand side all the cargo was stowed on the right-hand side behind the pilot and in the left-hand quarter compartment. The left-hand outer and inner seats and the centre seat were used for myself and the two pax Both aircraft were at the upper limits for weight for take-off from Wamena and we were not travelling fast when we went across a saddle into cloud and did the 180 to get out of it. We lost speed in the turn and then we saw 149 in front of us we kicked-off again. That’s when all the bells and whistles started going off up front. When we started settling into the trees I was looking out the left-hand side window, after having the two pax adopt the crash position. I had just finished reading a letter from home which had arrived the day before, and I thought “This is what an ant must feel like when I’m mowing the grass.” The rotor was chopping the foliage and smaller branches and shooting it out like a mower. Then the branch came through the floor on the left-hand side, flipping us upside down and into the ground. This branch was the one that caused me my injuries. Once I had gathered my thoughts in the aftermath of the crash, I pulled the cargo door window and then got the two pax out and down the skid, both were ambulatory at the time, and away from the aircraft. I attempted to get Greg Cashmere (co-pilot) out of the seat but he was lying on the ground and as I bent over my fractured pelvis dislocated and I fell over and crawled away. The Army pax removed Greg. I was then unable to go up the skid and disconnect the fuel line. The engine convulsed for over an hour. We tried calling on the PRC90 but couldn’t get through. We then had the army guy get the F1 HF set from the wreck. We dialled in frequencies from the aircraft and started calling but due to frequency skip ended-up talking with the SAS on exercise in central Australia. Apparently they notified the relevant authorities. The SAS were taken to Darwin and then flown to Wamena by C130A.

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On the 30th July a caribou flew over but we couldn’t see it from the ground. A rocket flare distress was fired and from this they were able to direct A2-149 to the wreck site. After the rescue party reached us we were winched out by stokes litter and taken to Wamena for preliminary surgery before being flown back to Royal Brisbane hospital for further surgery and treatment. The rest of the story is history and in the following report. I hope this aids the history of A2379. Paddy Sinclair Crewman A2-379

A close up of A2-379 after impact with the ground

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An aerial view of the crash site

A closer view of the impact point 3

SAS troopers being lowered to the crash site from A2-149

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A2-149 in the trees after the pad was prepared by the ground troops

West irian locals at crash site after the survivors were removed to Womena. 5

SAS troops recovering all useful equipment from the wreck

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The wreck of A2-379 being righted and cleared of all recoverable materiel then destroyed by demolition charges

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After demolition. Note the Australia on the tail boom, the ground crewman and myself On A2-379 and Gary Jones and his groundie on A2-149 placed these on the aircraft, with Masking tape, after it was learned that the Indonesian military were allegedly carrying out atrocities against the local population using Bell Iroquois aircraft painted in the same livery as the RAAF helicopters.

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Following is the report from the “Flying Safety Spotlight” Directorate of Airforce Safety , Operations in Tropical Mountainous Areas , Special Edition. This issue details crashes in both Irian Jaya and Papua New Guinea from June 1944 To October 1978. How coincidental is it that my crash was number 13 on the list.

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