My 2025 A to Z theme is Airports, Airstrips, Aircraft, and Airlines I’ve known and flown with. I’ll be using IATA codes where they’re available. My inner travel agent emerges at this point as I’m the FTO (family travel organiser) and now, the online travel agent.
THR Mehrabad International Airport, Tehran, Iran
It’s been informative to learn from Wikipedia, that some of the airports we flew into in the 70s have changed and also have different names. My memories from the time are piecemeal: military planes, guards with machine guns (scary). A cat walked across the tarmac and as I went to say hello to it, the guns were raised – I quickly changed my mind. Also strange to us then, was a woman in burqa, handing out small squares of toilet paper at the toilets. We didn’t take any photos here and I’m sure it wouldn’t have been welcome.
TSV Townsville Airport, Queensland, Australia
I mostly associate Townsville with arriving by train as we used to do when I was a child, however, on one holiday we flew in from Port Moresby to Townsville. Neither of us can recall if it was a direct flight, as we suspect, or if it came via Cairns. We saw some old family friends, had some time at Magnetic Island, then took another flight to visit friends from university and high school who were living at Palm Island, a predominantly Aboriginal settlement for which the local name is Bwgoclman. These were the same friends I’d taken on a tour of PNG from Moresby to Lae, Madang and Goroka.
PMK Palm Island Airport, off Townsville, Queensland
TALAIR, Goroka, Papua New Guinea
Not only did we fly often with Talair on visits to my husband’s family, I was also employed by them for about 9 months. With three Papua New Guinean men, we had responsibility for returning the required statistical data for the airline each month: passengers, freight, accidents etc. All this information flowed to the Department of Civil Aviation. As a family historian, I wonder if any of these documents have survived in our national archives. A personal memory, which makes me smile, is that my colleagues had to teach me to use one of the new-fangled calculators as I’d only used slide rules at university.
Plane Crash Gurney, Milne Bay District, PNG
Mentioning the DCA, reminds me that we need to see if my husband’s report on this plane crash still survives in the records somewhere. Judging on my search of our National Archives, it seems they may have all been transferred to Papua New Guinea.
Peter was the last person at Gurney airstrip when the Stol-owned Piper Aztec aircraft took off heading for the intensely-jungled ranges around the bay. As a result, he had to give his testimony to the enquiry. The plane was overloaded, and the pilot was inexperienced flying in the area which could be very challenging, especially in the wet season as it was. Those in the town of Alotau knew one family on board who were being posted to another place, and another worker on board. Peter had taken an Education Department employee to the airstrip while I had been on hand when he left the town’s accommodation lodge. I have always felt sorry when young pilots get the blame for accidents which have been beyond their skill base, with limited responsibility taken by others like their employer. You can read the outcome of the final report here and here. And for our family records, other stories are here, here, here, here, and here.
As you might imagine, the missing aircraft cast a pall of worry over the small town of Alotau, as residents took turns flying over the search area. Those who flew with a former Vietnam helicopter pilot tended to come back a bit green around the gills. It was so sad to learn the final outcome. It will be the 55th anniversary of the event next month. May they rest in peace.
May they rest in peace.
Are you a nervous flyer especially if you fly in small aircraft? Many people find it a challenge. After flying so long in PNG we tend to have a “when your numbers up, it’s up attitude” – which fortunately hasn’t been put to the test.
Family history across the seas 
On our trip around Australia by caravan we flew three times in small planes and I don’t remember being particularly worried. I think more about crashing when flying on big planes in the dark or through cloud. The names and ages of those in the crash you wrote about bring tears to the eyes. Talking about Palm Island I’ve just started a book called Salt Water about a young woman who worked for the Legal Service in Townsville and was a frequent visitor to Palm Island by air. I picked it up at a second hand bookstore in Airlie Beach for the flight home. It is described as “one lawyer’s fight for justice amongst the beauty and the violence of this tropical paradise.”
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Must find that book. I imagine there are many references to the Curry family.
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Of course there is THF – Templehoff in Berlin but it is no longer operating as an airport. I wrote a post about Candybombers at Templehoff in Three Score Years and Ten.
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Unfortunately we’ve never been to Berlin at all. I shall look for your post.
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One for me to look for too. My grandfather reportedly built/helped build the Catholic Church on Palm Island.
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Like Jill, I’ll look for that book.
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The author is Cathy McLennan
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It was so sad to lose the young family especially.
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what a tragic story!!
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I commented earlier but I’m on my phone and it keeps making me sign in. I apologize if I commented more than once. That is such a tragic story about the plane crash.
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Yes it was. Frustrating that tech sometimes lets us down commenting.
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The loss of those lives is tragic.
I haven’t flown in years
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Yes it certainly was tragic. Mind you, driving isn’t as safe as we tend to assume.
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are you trying to get me to never leave the house😀
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I’ve never been to any of these T airports. It’s also T for tragic as reading about the loss of lives is very tragic. Thanks for the link to the newspapers. They were interesting to read but very sad.
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You make a very good point re T for tragic. It was a sobering experience for those who knew people on the flight.
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Having been patted down by a tall and large police woman in burqa and another time pulled aside after going through most of the security in the Middle East I’m a bit uneasy flying through this area. Also saw uniformed men with machine guns, as we called them in my 20s, around the stairs to the planes when we landed at Taiwan. This was very unusual for a kiwi where even the police did not carry arms. And reminds me how air bridges improved boarding and exiting planes.
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Being patted down would certainly be unnerving. I also remember the shock of seeing people with guns overseas and then the shock when we found Qld Police has started wearing guns..mid-70s maybe.
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There are too many sad stories of light planes in PNG.
I remember flying to TSV Townsville with all the kids while Mr GeniAus, because of work commitments, followed us a few days later. I haven’t logged that flight in my MyFlightRadar account – now t ofind the detail!
The only extra T airport I can offer is TXK – Berlin Tegel. I have many memories of our time in Berlin but none of the airport.
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It is one of the tragedies of PNG. Pleased to help with another flight:)
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