Peter Broughton Tells the Story of Maralinga (continued)

In all the time I had stayed at Maralinga I had never visited the airfield and was surprised to find out how close it was to the village. There were nine other passengers happily waiting in the departure room to return to civilisation. The return trip on the Dove started uneventfully, although our pilot seemed to have some difficulty deciding how much fuel was needed before we took off for Adelaide. The mess had provided an urn of tea, an urn of coffee and a hamper of sandwiches to see us through to journey's end. We were warned that it would be extremely turbulent flying over the desert until we reached 4,500 metres but after that it would be safe for us to unfasten our seat belts and unpack the refreshments. We settled ourselves and the aircraft took off in a surprisingly steep climb from the airfield. A young sergeant behind me became very agitated by the way the pilot was handling the aircraft and the passengers near him had to persuade him not to leave his seat. It wasn't long before the aircraft started shuddering and bumping its way up through some of the most extreme turbulence I have ever experienced. None of us were feeling the best when the aircraft levelled off an hour later. I remember I was the first to make my way to the back of the aircraft and unlash the containers of tea and coffee, pouring two cups of tea thinking the pilots would welcome it. To my surprise I found them both asleep with an alarm clock set to 5 pm, our scheduled time of arrival at Adelaide airport, attached to a string swinging back and forth between them. As I touched the pilot's arm he nearly shot through the roof (perhaps he thought I was the grim reaper). "Don't you ever do that again" he shouted at me. I could only offer them the tea in a state of shock and I vowed never to make the same mistake again. I later learnt that most pilots sleep on long journeys, but at the time it was a secret I kept to myself just in case there was a parachute on board and I needed to get to it first. Surely we were flying on a wing and a prayer; "Dear God, let the alarm clock go off at 5 o'clock".

Bureau of Meteorology