By Tony Duboudin A HASTINGS resident believes he can throw some light on the mystery disappearance in 1937 of the American aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan while on a flight around the world. Earhart was last seen taking off from the territory of Papua New Guinea, then administered by Australia. Patrick Gibbons, who has lived in Hastings for the past 13 years, remembers his then father in law, Allan Roberts, who was assistant district officer in Wau in PNG at the time, telling him about witnessing Earhart taking off from Lae on what proved to be her…
Day: March 7, 2017
A LIGHT plane which made an unscheduled landing on a beach at the eastern tip of French Island later had to be removed by barge. The A22LS Foxbat with two people on board was on a sightseeing trip from Tyabb airfield when the pilot decided to land on a strip of sand where they had previously seen other planes land. Despite doing a fly-past and seeing no impediment to landing, the sand was deeper and softer than expected and the plane sank deeper than would allow it to take off again. No one was injured but some damage was caused…