An account of the RAAF C130 search for the survivors of MV NOONGAH

There were 26 people on the Noongah's crew and tragically 21 lives were lost.

The search for survivors of the MV Noongah

This account is based on my recollection of events 50 years ago, with some reference to the Marine Court of Inquiry, Aircraft maps, navigation logs, and communication records were attached to the mission report and have undoubtedly passed through a shredder by now.

The two C130 squadrons at Richmond NSW (36 and 37SQNs) had recently assumed search and rescue (SAR) responsibility for the east coast as the maritime reconnaissance squadron at Richmond (11SQN) was picking up new aircraft and had been relocated to Edinburgh SA. Appropriate operating procedures had been developed by Flying Officer Fred North-Coombes. The assigned SAR aircraft was fuelled and loaded with one set of Lindholme equipment of two large, self-inflating liferafts and two stores containers all linked by long buoyant rope. Aircraft and crew had to be airborne within three hours of callout.

On August 25, 36SQN held the SAR responsibility and the assigned crew was: Flight Lieutenant Alan Robson (Robbie), Captain; Co-pilot - cannot recall; Flight Lieutenant Raoul Mills (Raoul), navigator; Flight engineer - cannot recall; Sargeant O'Brien (Obi) - loadmaster.

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At about 4.30am on August 25, NOONGAH broadcast a distress signal and the Captain ordered abandon ship, but down by the head, taking on water in heavy weather, and not under power, NOONGAH sank almost immediately. Both lifeboats were not launched, but two liferafts were. The RAAF was advised about 5am and the SAR crew called out. The aircraft captain woke me about 5.30-6am and asked me to come on the mission as well. I suggested he put on a full fuel load if possible. We got airborne about 7.20am and headed for the last known position of NOONGAH.

On descent into the area to 500ft, it was obvious the weather was extremely foul - breaking whitecaps everywhere, high surface winds and considerable air turbulence - the worst search conditions you could imagine. The radar was used to search the vicinity of the last known position and no targets were seen - NOONGAH had presumably sunk.

Turbulence was so bad Raoul became airsick and I took over as navigator.

After discussion with the Captain, I set up an expanding square search around the last known position. After settling into the search, each individual leg of the square became longer, so I was able to help with lookout duties. Standing behind the co-pilot, you have a better downwards view over the nose and radome. After some time, I spotted a liferaft more or less dead ahead which Obi marked with two smoke floats of limited duration. As we manoeuvred to remark the liferaft with a longer endurance smoke marker, I sighted a second liferaft which we marked as well. With long endurance smoke markers performing correctly, we used the radar to search for a rescue ship.

The nearest ship was the KOYO MARU, a small tanker steaming northwards, rolling and pitching heavily. The ship's name and port of registration were in Japanese, no authority appeared to know who she was, so we were unable to get radio contact with her. We used Very flares and various aircraft manoeuvres to eventually get the KOYO MARU to follow us to the first liferaft. Under extremely difficult circumstances, the one survivor was rescued.

KOYO MARU began to resume steaming northwards, but we got her to follow us to the second liferaft and this survivor was rescued. There were two openings in each liferaft but each survivor had moved from one opening to the other as we passed overhead, suggesting more than one survivor in each liferaft.

Having spent considerable time and fuel on the rescues, we resumed searching but found no one. Low on fuel in the late afternoon, we headed for home base passing HOBART steaming north to join the search. We gave HOBART a report on what had transpired and landed in the early evening.

After debrief, the pilots and navigators retired to the informal bar for a couple of coldies. Dead tired from a hard day, we were slightly buoyed by the thought that we had saved some sailors but dismayed by the high probability that Australian lives had been lost.

The KOYO MARU dropped off the two survivors, Second Engineer John Wirth and Assistant Steward Anwyl Durose, to the Port Brisbane pilot boat off Mooloolaba.

The last I had heard of Robbie he was living in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney in the late 90s. He was an ex-RAF fighter pilot who migrated to Australia and certainly earned his citizenship with this and other flights into Vietnam. I have no recent knowledge of the other crew members.

Myself, I am long retired from the RAAF living with my wife in a Moreton Bay suburb. In the last few months, I was emailed by Mr John Fenwick from Sunderland England who sought to honour his childhood pal Patrick Kilgariff who had migrated and lost his life as a crew member of NOONGAH. On John's behalf, I arranged an 'In Memoriam' notice for The Age for Saturday August 24, and back in July, placed a bouquet in honour of Patrick in the ocean at Hat Head to the south of Smoky Cape. My wife and I visited South West Rocks for the 50th anniversary of the sinking of NOONGAH and were very pleasantly surprised to find two local ladies had organised a memorial service at the lovely Captain Cook lookout adjacent to the Smoky Cape lighthouse. We were absolutely delighted to find Patrick Kilgariff's sister attending and other relatives of lost crew members.