MacRobertson Miller Airlines

History

In 1919, Horrie Miller purchased an Armstrong Whitworth F.K.8 from the United Kingdom and launched the Commercial Aviation Company, in Rochester, Victoria. On 8 October 1920, he registered the Commercial Aviation Company. In 1927, the Commercial Aviation Company commenced weekly Adelaide to Mount Gambier services with an Airco DH.9.

Early years

The initial success of operating the DH.9 to Broken Hill made Miller seek investment to purchase a larger aircraft more suitable for regular airline service.

He approached Macpherson Robertson, who had become a millionaire on the back of his successful MacRobertson's confectionery business and was known as both a philanthropist and a supporter of aviation in Australia.

Robertson agreed to fund the purchase of a de Havilland Giant Moth single-engined eight-passenger aircraft. It would be owned by a new company, MacRobertson-Miller Aviation, formally created in May 1928. Horrie Miller would retain control of Commercial Aviation Limited while receiving a salary and a minority stake in the new MMA. The airline was run out of the MacRobertson's office in Adelaide, supported by corporate headquarters in Melbourne, which provided key administrative and legal abilities in the company's early years.

The Giant Moth aircraft was named Old Gold after one of MacRobertson's most successful chocolate bars. Always with an eye to publicity, Robertson requested that the cabin of Old Gold be filled with MacRobertson confectionery for its delivery flight to Adelaide, which was then distributed to the gathered crowd.

The first scheduled MMA service was from Adelaide to Renmark on 26 April 1928, later joined by flights to Broken Hill, Mount Gambier and Kangaroo Island, with Miller's own DH.9 being used to provide services as demand grew.

To bolster MMA's own capacity, a second aircraft was needed. Miller imported a Fokker Universal from the United States, starting a long association between MMA and the Dutch manufacturer. A flying school was also set up at Mount Gambier, using a de Havilland DH.60 Moth.

Thanks to a combination of the long legs flown between destinations in the sparsely-inhabited Pilbara region, an effective rostering and operations system and a well-honed practice of short turnarounds (usually 25 minutes, as is now typical on modern low-cost carriers), the airline's Fokker aircraft had some of the highest utilisation rates in the world and accumulated some of the highest mileages. In 1965, the company's F27s averaged 4150 flight hours. The first F27 purchased by the airline, registered VH-MMS and named RMA Swan, became the first F27 in the world to reach 10,000 flight hours and later the first to accumulate 20,000 hours. It flew over 40,000 hours with MMA, setting another world record for an F27 with a daily utilisation average of 10.66 hours, before being redeployed to parent company Ansett Australia in 1972. The latter Fokker F28 fleet was also distinguished by extremely high utilisation – F28 VH-FKA RMA Pilbara became the first of the type to fly 20,000 and 30,000 hours and logged nearly 63,000 hours before it was withdrawn in 1995. The fleet averaged 8.5 flying hours per day in the mid-1970s. Aircraft on the main route between Perth and Darwin via four or five airports in the Pilbara, and with services to Gove and Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory before making the return flight via the same ports of call, would take just over 22 hours to make the round trip, of which over 13 hours was spent in the air.

MMA's F28s flew what was at the time the world's longest twinjet route, and certainly the world's longest F28 flight – Perth to Derby. In the 1980s, as Ansett WA, some of the F28 fleet were fitted with extra fuel tanks to increase their range (matching the BAe146), which allowed longer flights direct from Kununurra to Perth – a flight time of 3+1⁄4 hours. According to the 5 April 1970 MMA system timetable, the airline was operating F28 jet service into Dampier, Darwin, Derby, Kununurra, Perth, and Port Hedland at this time. MMA also flew one of the world's shortest scheduled air services, from Perth to Rottnest Island flying the Douglas DC-3 and later the Fokker F27. MMA's first F28 was leased from Braathens of Norway and returned to Fokker after the first of the ordered aircraft arrived. One was originally purchased for Ansett division Airlines of New South Wales but transferred to MMA when it proved uneconomical on the NSW intrastate routes.

Accidents and incidents

On 1 July 1949, Douglas DC-3 "Fitzroy" on a scheduled flight to Darwin and carrying 14 passengers and a crew of 4 crashed after take-off from Perth in heavy rain. The aircraft crashed into an area of disused army huts north of Guildford that was directly in line with Perth Airport's major runway 21/03. It is believed to have been caused by the aircraft being incorrectly loaded.

On 31 December 1968, Vickers Viscount "Quininup" VH-RMQ leased from Ansett-ANA broke up in mid-air and crashed 52 kilometres (32 mi) south of Port Hedland Airport in the scrub on Indee Station. Twenty-two passengers and the four crew on board were killed. The aircraft was originally purchased by Trans Australia Airlines.

Fokker F28 Flight MV 372 Perth to Port Hedland – 30 July 1971, VH-FKC: During the long, late-night hop, destination and onward airports became blanketed with fog. The F28 became dangerously low on fuel, and after circling for some time, Captain Harold Rowell considered ditching the aircraft in the ocean. However, he eventually landed the jet on a gravel runway in the isolated town of Fitzroy Crossing, landing with less than ten minutes of fuel remaining. No life was lost, and no injury occurred.

Fokker F28s of MMA assisted with the evacuation of Darwin after Cyclone Tracy in December 1974. One F28-1000 carried 128 evacuees, mostly children, on a flight to Perth, though most aircraft carried 80, 20 more than the standard 60 passengers. The MMA F28s helped evacuate 1,250 people out of Darwin in four days.

On 17 January 1974, Fokker F-28-1000 VH-FKA operating Flight MV 492 (a Perth to Darwin milk run with four stops) overran the runway at Broome Airport. The weather was wet,t and the aircraft overran the runway threshold by 82 metres (269 ft), crashing through a wire and picket fence before stopping with the nosewheel sunk in mud. There were no injuries and some minor damage to the aircraft's nosewheel doors, a fuselage-mounted landing light, and the oxygen access panel.

On 26 September 1983, Fokker F28 VH-FKA took off from Perth Airport on a routine flight to the North West. As the aircraft banked left after takeoff on Runway 21, the main passenger door/airstairs suddenly opened. The air hostess sitting in the jump seat adjacent to the door lost her shoes. The door had been closed, but the lock bar had not been moved to the upright "lock" position. Ground crew also failed to see that the outside door release (aft of the door on the fuselage) was not in the correct horizontal position. The co-pilot also failed to see that the door "unlatched" light (which was orange in colour) had remained on. This check formed part of the pre-taxi checklist. However, bright sunlight glare through the starboard cockpit windows made it difficult to see that the light was on. The door fell open as the cabin pressure increased and as the aircraft climbed and banked left. The aircraft circled for two hours above Perth, burning fuel before making a safe landing.