Five souls. A sailing trip in the Whitsundays. A charter flight home. And then, nothing.
On the evening of 9 August 1981, a Cessna 210 carrying four Sydney workmates and their pilot who were on their way back back from a holiday in the Whitsunday Passage lost contact after flying into adverse weather, with the last known contact placing it over the Barrington Tops. More than four decades on, no trace of the aircraft or its occupants has ever been found, despite extensive searches.
This week we go through the last known minutes of VH-MDX. The flight had already refuelled at the Gold Coast and was tracking down the coast toward Sydney when things started going wrong. Just after passing the CRAVN waypoint, the pilot reported severe turbulence and downdrafts, and that his artificial horizon and gyroscopic direction indicator had both failed, the two instruments a pilot needs most when the ground disappears into cloud. Radar had the aircraft roughly 40 kilometres northwest of its planned track, near the Barrington Tops. The pilot then reported ice building on the airframe and difficulty holding altitude. His last transmission, at 7:39pm, put him at 5,000 feet.
Some of this is a matter of official record. Some of it, where MDX actually rests, genuinely isn't known. This week, Rich Baker, Dr. Nick Coatsworth and special guest Dean Frith go through the flight data, the search history, and the terrain that's kept a Cessna and five men hidden for over forty years.
Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com.
The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories — we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what drives people to believe them.
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