New evidence in missing plane mystery
For the first time, scientists have used a magnetometer suspended from a helicopter to locate a new search target in the NSW Barrington Tops forest, in a story to air on Seven's Sunday Night.
Magnetometers are used in mining to conduct geophysical surveys but suspended from a helicopter they can aid searching in near-impenetrable forest, reporter Denham Hitchcock revealed.
"The undergrowth [of Barrington Tops] is so thick it’s virtually impenetrable, I could be walking past a plane wreck five metres that way and not even know it, and that’s what has made searching for this plane has been almost impossible for the past three decades," Hitchcock said.
"A magnetometer can find metal deposits deep underground — or in the case of flight MDX, the metal remains of a Cessna."
Flight VH-MDX is Australia's only unsolved civil aviation mystery; the small commercial plane that vanished just 40km from a major NSW town and no trace was ever found.
The flight recording, to air this week on Seven's Sunday Night, reveals the series of problems that resulted in the plane rapidly losing altitude and the navigation instruments to fail.
On Sunday, August 9, 1981, the Cessna 210 with five people on board disappeared over the rugged Barrington Tops forest after rerouting inland to avoid military airspace in use.
They flew straight into a storm that caused icing on the outside of the plane.
The story will air this Sunday at 7.40pm.
Denham Hitchcock reveals how he used a paramotor to get closer view of the search site.
