Staff reporter

Several minor injuries were sustained during the evacuation of VH-ZRK on 5 April 2022, which had two flight crew, a flight attendant and 23 passengers on board for a flight to King Island, while some passengers exited the plane with their bags.

Based at RAAF East Sale in Victoria, the RAAF’s Pilatus PC-21 fleet has a total of 49 aircraft and has been in use by the Air Force for more than seven years, having replaced both the ageing Pilatus PC-9/A advanced trainer, which was in service since 1988, and the CT-4B Airtrainer, which was used for basic training.

The 737-800, VH-YQR, was operating a flight from Brisbane to Melbourne on 6 September last year when a member of the cabin crew requested to enter the flight deck as the plane reached cruising altitude near Ballina.

Steve Roberton takes over from Warren “Macca” McDonald, who is retiring after a distinguished career. Following a transitional handover period, Roberton now reports to Ray Piselli, vice president international business at Lockheed Martin.

The KC-30A originally took off from RAAF Base Amberley before travelling more than 23.3 hours, with two refuelling brackets supplied from a second RAAF KC-30A, to Jerez, Spain.

The Saab 340A, VH-KDK, was in the middle of a repositioning flight from Wagga Wagga to Charleville on 23 April 2023 when the cockpit filled with smoke, forcing the pilots to divert to Cobar.