Date:	Friday 8 September 1972
Time:	day
Type:	de Havilland DH-82a Tiger Moth
Owner/operator:	Maxwell H Price t/a Tasmanian Aviation Services
Registration:	VH-AQL
MSN:	83126
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Category:	Accident
Location:	Bass Strait, off Eddystone Point, TAS -   Australia
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Passenger - Non-Scheduled/charter/Air Taxi
Departure airport:	Cambridge Aerodrome, Hobart, Tasmania (YCBG)
Destination airport:	Flinders Island Airport, Whitemark, Flinders Island (YFLI)
Investigating agency:	BASI
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
de Havilland DH-82a Tiger Moth MSN 83126 (Gipsy Major #82927); Taken on chaerge by the RAF as T5361 at 4 MU RAF Cowley, Oxford 14.5.40 and shipped direct to Australia. Taken on charge by the RAAF 18.7.40, and retained orignal RAF serial. To 7 EFTS Western Junction 15.9.40.

Struck off charge when sold 5.3.46 to Tasmanian Aero Club. Australian civil registered VH-AQL 3.4.46 to Tasmanian Aero Club, Western Junction. Re-registered 21.10.46 to Aero Club of Southern Tasmania, Cambridge Airport, Hobart, Tasmania. Registration VH-AQL cancelled 20.10.47. Registration restored 11.4.48 to same owner. Registration cancelled again 10.4.49. Re-registered 25.6.49 to same owner. Re-registered 19.2.57 to K Frank Jaeger, Smithton, Tasmania. Registration VH-AQL cancelled 14.12.60. Re-registered 10.11.66 to Maxwell H Price, Hobart, Tasmania. Missing when disappeared into the Bass Strait, off Eddystone Point, Tasmania 8.9.72, en route between Cambridge, Hobart, and Flinders Island, Tasmania. Both persons on board posted as "missing, believed killed". According to the summary from the ATSB accident report (see link#5 for summary, link #6 for full report):

"On 8 September 1972, a De Havilland DH82A aircraft registered VH-AQL, disappeared whilst on a private travel flight from Cambridge, Tasmania to Flinders Island in Bass Strait. No trace has been found of the aircraft or its occupants. An intense air, sea and land search was conducted over a period of twenty days and the search was continued on a reduced scale for a further twenty-nine days. During this whole period a total of 374 hours 36 minutes were flown by search aircraft and 105 sighting or hearing reports were evaluated. The weight of the evidence indicates that the aircraft proceeded in a northerly direction along the east coast of Tasmania to Eddystone Point where it headed seaward in the direction of Cape Barren and Flinders Islands. The last reported sighting, by a witness at Eddystone Point, indicates that the aircraft was then flying at an altitude of about 2,000 feet and appeared to be operating normally".

The two fatalities were Maxwell H. Price (pilot and owner of VH-AQL) and Miss Brenda Mary Hean (passenger). According to the Wikipedia biography of Brenda Hean:

"Brenda Hean (1910-1972) was a member of the Lake Pedder Action Committee (LPAC) and a resident of Hobart, Tasmania who disappeared at the time of the flooding of Lake Pedder. She planned a protest flight to Canberra with Maxwell Price, from Tasmanian Aviation Services, in a WWII era Tiger Moth to gain support by skywriting 'Save Lake Pedder' above Parliament House. Hean and Price were trying to widen the scope of the opposition in mainland Australia, in a way that the subsequent Franklin Dam protest did some ten years later. Shortly before the flight, however, she received a threatening phone call: 'Mrs Hean, how would you like to go for a swim?'

The plane departed on 8 September 1972 from Cambridge Airport near Hobart. It was due to refuel at Flinders Island but never arrived. No traces or debris were found despite a massive 10-day sea and air search. The focus of the search later shifted as sea currents would take any evidence southeast towards New Zealand.

It was suspected that pro-dam campaigners had broken into the plane's hangar the night before it took off and placed sugar in one of its petrol tanks. Safety items from the plane were later found hidden in the hangar."

The Bass Strait is a strait separating the island of Tasmania from the Australian mainland, and also providing the most direct waterway between the Great Australian Bight and the Tasman Sea. Formed 8,000 years ago by rising sea levels, the strait was named after English explorer and physician George Bass.

Registration VH-AQL cancelled 8.9.72 as "destroyed"

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft T1000-V9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain)
2. "Hobart Star" 9 September 1972 page 1
3. https://air-britain.com/pdfs/production-lists/DH82.pdf
4. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/p831.html
5. ATSB Accident Summary: https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/1972/aair/aair197202618/
6. ATSB Full Accident Report: https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/24673/197202618.pdf
7. http://www.adf-serials.com.au/2a17d.htm
8. https://tahs.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/TAHS-2020.0007.0_Mystery_VH-AQL.pdf
9. http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac1/austa2/VH-AQL.html
10. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-18/lake-pedder-protesters-brenda-hean-max-price-disappearance/12660976
11. https://www.abc.net.au/hobart/programs/drive/brenda-hean/12642694
12. https://www.magzter.com/stories/Womens-Interest/The-Australian-Womens-Weekly/WHO-KILLED-BRENDA-HEAN
13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenda_Hean
14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_Strait
15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Aerodrome
16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flinders_Island_Airport
17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddystone_Point

Tonight on #abc730: Brenda Hean's fight to save Lake Pedder would ultimately lead to her mysterious disappearance — five decades later, the push to restore the lake to its former glory remains alive.https://t.co/IbRuiubo1q

— abc730 (@abc730) September 7, 2022

On 8 Sept 1972 Brenda Hean took off in a Tiger Moth bound for Canberra to skywrite “Save Lake Pedder”. She never made it. The case remains an unsolved mystery. Join us to remember Brenda with a virtual screening of “Whatever happened to Brenda Hean?” https://t.co/ezsHial9do

— RestorePedder (@RestorePedder) September 8, 2020

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
29-Jul-2018 13:29	Pineapple	Added
21-Dec-2021 17:56	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Cn, Operator, Location, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Category]
05-Jan-2022 17:12	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Category]
07-Jun-2022 11:59	Ron Averes	Updated [Location]
27-May-2023 10:51	Ron Averes	Updated [[Location]]