The Ulver Emergency

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The Uiver Emergency A remarkable moment in aviation history took place in rural south east Australia. In the early hours of the morning of Wednesday October 24th, 1934, a DC2 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines aeroplane landed at the Albury racecourse after encountering a severe and dangerous storm en route to Melbourne. The plane's safe landing would not have happened without the pluck and resourcefulness of the townsfolk of Albury. The plane, known as the ‘Uiver’ (the Dutch word for a stork) was competing in the London-Melbourne Centenary Air Race. It was in second place when the storm knocked out its communication system, and it began flying blind in mountainous terrain near the Victorian Alps. What happened next is the stuff of local legend in the city of Albury, where, in the middle of the night, local residents used the city lights to flash out the town's name in Morse code, while other townsfolk drove to the racecourse to form a makeshift landing strip with their headlights. But while the story has become a classic in the history of aviation, it’s equally a story about the powerful reach of radio (in this instance the ABC),  which played a crucial role in the safe landing of the aeroplane.   This program returns to the dramatic events surrounding the Uiver emergency, both in Albury and the Netherlands, where this story is remembered through the memoirs of some of its' key protagonists as well as inside the country's national aviation museum. Presenter: Gaye Pattison Interviewees: Martin Buzacott / Alison Jess / Johnathan Wright / Noel Jackling / Arthur Newnham jnr Producer: Martin Buzacott Sound Engineers: Costa Zouliou / Mark Vear ABC Radio AU Sunday 2 November 2014 1:05PM

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.