In this exercise, the object is to find which of these Reports have anything in common to demonstrate that VH-MDX did in fact pull out of the apparent ‘death dive’ and continue to another spot to where it obviously crashed as it has never been seen since.
It has been said that I just pick out of the Reports that which best suits my theory
and yes, there is always a danger in this happening, but if you care to bare with
me and think over what I say, you will see that this is not the case.
In this article,
just because I have not mentioned other Reports does not mean that I have not examined
them in detail... but to add and explain them here would require writing a book and
that is not the purpose of this article. They don’t fit the pattern that you will
see emerging and so not worth mentioning. My time is much better spent giving credit
to the valid Reports than wasting time discrediting the others. VH-MDX could have
only been in one place and on one course at the time and I will endeavor to show
you where it was and where it went.
From my understanding, possibly the person that
has done the most in this field of late has been Jesse Miller, and I take my hat
off to him. Unfortunately I had a fall out with him over quite what I’m not sure
of, and this has made much of this exercise rather difficult as I have had to work
through third parties, and Jesse has not been forth-coming with the extra information
that I really need.
Most of the problem I think has been caused by messages between him and I on Messenger,
as often something that can innocently written can be taken the wrong way... but
I suppose that’s life and we have to live with it...
Since starting this article,
I have finally obtained Section One of Don Readford’s book “Operation Phoenix” and
according to Don, these Reports used in his book that I will explain below, came
from the Late Sergeant Peter Anforth of the NSW Police.
The first Report that got my attention was Jesse’s “Father and Son” Report yet there
seemed to be a lot of discrepancies in it with gave the impression that it could
not be relied upon... until at a much later point Steven Oliver (my go-between) found
out from Jesse that there were two “Father and Son” Reports that were within 2 1/2
kms of each other!
Father and Son #1 Report (Jesse Miller)
Report Location: 32 8 45.38
“S 151 47 51.09 “E. Taken this off a map Yarn brought with him.
I was camping on the
Tops with my son Sebastian 16 and doing a bit of a 4x4 adventure for about 5 days
and nights. First Ladies Well over the plateau to a spot near Invergordon then down
to Big Ben and we were heading up to Berrico Trig from Ben and I dropped the driveshaft
on that bearing I showed you so we camped there 2 days or so. We bloody froze. Hahaha.
I remember thinking thank heavens we were camping and not just 4x4ing as we would
have been unprepared. On the second night the 9th Sat I had just finished dinner
with Sebastian and were listening to the ABC weather report on the radio the 7.30pm
report. We were talking about how bloody cold it was and Sebastian got up to throw
a log on the fire and he said ‘papa look’ and pointed to the north. I sat up and
seen headlights. I thought it was a car coming down the hill. I was surprised when
I seen it was a plane. Sebastian made a joke about it being a duck with a flashlight,
I remember this because every time I see a plane at night I think of the duck with
the flashlight makes me laugh. Anyway the plane was back and forth up and down. One
minute the lights are on us then they point away again. It came from the north around
Berrico trig from Invergordon I reckon. It passed by us roaring it engine off I could
feel it in my feet and my chest.
Sebastian had the flashlight in his hand and waved
it at them they were that close. It was odd I thought because I love to fly and watch
planes and the one’s that passed over the tops in the nights before didn’t have lights
on and were never that low plus the direction was odd because the planes that I seen
didn’t come that way. It headed south to Ben near Cherry Tree Road. I watched it
for about another minute and got too cold and sat by the fire. I think I had one
too many beers hahaha because I got up for a piss about 10 to 15 min later and heard
a distant thud like a tree falling. I don’t know if it was the plane or not just
remember thinking it was loud. The next day I got the 4x4 fixed and we were away.
We backed down the track then turned around and headed for Ben again. We were going
to go home but Sebastian wanted to do some bush walking so we stayed the last night.
I remember a lot of planes around the Tops the day we headed back for Ben, they were
all low as well so I didn’t think much of the plane I saw the night before. It wasn’t
until the day we were going home 2 days after seeing the plane we heard about it
on the radio. My heart skipped a beat and I felt sick as soon as I heard it. We stopped
at Gloucester police station to tell them what we both seen. We spoke with a Sarge
Davis I think at the time. He didn’t seem too keen to even have an interview with
myself and Sebastian. I left still feeling sick. I don’t even know if the police
took us serious.
MDX pg 49