Miners broke protocol to fly single aircraft

Ken Talbot, and the search area. Photos / Supplied, Herald Graphic

The search for a charter aircraft carrying one of Australia's richest men and the entire board of one of the country's mining companies resumed last night in the heavily forested region bordering the west African nations of Cameroon, Gabon and Congo.

The Spanish-built CASA C-212 turboprop vanished on a flight from Yaounde in Cameroon to Yangadou in Congo on Sunday amid unconfirmed reports of an explosion and thunderstorms in the area.

On board were billionaire miner Ken Talbot and the board of Sundance Resources Ltd, which is developing a major mine in the Mbalam region of Cameroon that is expected to produce 35 million tonnes of iron ore a year for mills in Europe, China, India and the Middle East.

As a fleet of aircraft and helicopters prepared to continue the search yesterday, reports emerged that the board had broken protocol by flying together in a single aircraft, and that the charter company was operating under an international safety cloud.

The party, which had flown to Africa to inspect progress on the mine and to hold high level meetings with officials in Cameroon and Congo, had been forced to leave Talbot's executive jet and switch to the CASA C-212 because of primitive airfields.

Western Australian miner George Jones, a colleague of missing Sundance chairman Geoff Wedlock, told Fairfax radio that the decision to board the flight together breached corporate governance protocols.

As well as Talbot, Wedlock and the crew, the aircraft also carried Sundance chief executive Don Lewis, company secretary John Carr-Gregg, directors John Jones and Craig Oliver, and executive assistant Natasha Flason Brian, a French citizen living in Brisbane.

"Ken Talbot had his own plane there but the place they went to, Yangadou in Congo, is a dirt strip the company had repaired for the smaller charter craft and Ken's plane couldn't land there, so I think circumstances caused them to all get the one plane."

The charter company, Aero-Service, was originally formed in 1967 as a freight branch of a food company, but now operates as an independent airline flying Russian Antonov, American Cessna, British Britten Norman and CASA passenger and freight aircraft.

Following a series of incidents and wider International Air Transport Association concerns about safety and aviation regulation in the region, Aero-Service was placed on a blacklist banning a number of African airlines from the European Union.

The circumstances of the disappearance of the CASA aircraft carrying the Australian party last night remained unclear and despite extensive air searches no trace had been found when darkness fell on Sunday.

The aircraft flew out of Yaounde in fine weather at 9.13 am (8.13pm NZ time) on Saturday, expecting to touch down at Yanadou at 10.20am (9.20pm), but failed to arrive.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said yesterday that the missing aircraft had contacted air traffic controllers a few minutes after departure, and again about 30 minutes later.

Both were standard identification and procedural contacts, he said.

A search coordinated by the Cameroon, Gabonese and Congolese authorities, resumed at 6pm, involving fixed wing aircraft and helicopters.

Sundance said all work at its mine site had been suspended and its entire resources in the area had been diverted to the search.

Smith said the search was focusing on heavily forested and difficult terrain in the border region between Cameroon and Congo, and that Australia's High Commissioner in Nigeria, Jeff Hart, had flown with other officials to Cameroon.

"Our first and primary concern now is to try and locate the missing plane," he told the ABC in Perth.

Smith also said he could not confirm reports of an explosion.

"I have heard one suggestion which has been related to me, that there were sounds of low-level flying which people thought may have been an aircraft, but on my advice, not definitive enough to narrow the general search area."

In Australia, the mining industry reacted with shock to the news.

Keith de Lacy, chairman of Queensland's Macarthur Coal, founded by Talbot, told ABC radio that the families and friends of the missing party were hoping for a miracle.

"Hope springs eternal in the human breast and everybody is hoping, but it's gone on for some time and of course if a plane doesn't arrive in the Congo, in Africa the prospects don't look too good," he said.