Dick Smith unable to find Max Hazelton crash site

Fellow aviator and businessman Dick Smith set up the search because he said Mr Hazelton was an icon and the only pilot to survive a crash in the rugged mountains. Mr Hazelton walked out of the bush six days later.

He was covered in scratches and caked in mud. His clothes were ripped by brambles and his feet were bruised, cut and bleeding.

Mr Smith said he wanted to find where the plane had ploughed through the top of trees in low cloud before flipping on its back.

He flew his helicopter to a small clearing at Whalania Heights deep in Kanangra Walls National Park, meeting a small ground party of Mr Hazelton and his family members, son Toby, grandson Lochie, nephew Peter, brother-in-law Selwyn Murray, friend Wade Mahlo and staff from National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Mr Smith had worked out a spot where he thought the plane had crashed and hoped to find it from the air but, just like 60 years ago, low cloud set in and reduced visibility to 50 metres or so followed by drizzling rain, grounding the helicopter all day.

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Using four-wheel-drives the party battled their way through the thick bush to the spot but Mr Hazelton believed it was the wrong place.

They searched a wide area of the thick undergrowth for telltale pieces of perspex but found nothing.

Mr Hazelton didn't recognise the area although it had obviously changed over the years.

After the crash I was hanging upside down in the plane and the top of the cabin was crushed in, but when I scrambled out visibility in the thick fog was almost nil, he said.

I reckoned if I could climb to the top of the mountain I might be able to get my bearings, but the fog was so thick I could see only a few yards ahead so I decided to go back to the plane for the night but couldn't find it.

That was the beginning of his amazing six-day trek out of the mountains.

About noon on October 22, 60 years ago today, Mr Hazelton staggered out of the bush into a timber cutters camp in the Burragorang Valley, near the Coxs River.

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They gave him some tea and corn beef sandwiches, which he thought was the best meal he'd ever had, and told him how to get to the Coxs River post office, now under water, which was run by Mr and Mrs Kill, whose son Chev was a policeman in Orange.

Mr Hazelton had lived on barley grass, which he knew was good to eat, some sour lemons, a cabbage thistle and a couple of corn cobs he found in an old hut.

He said this weeks search for the site had been interesting but he thought it was on a gentler slope than where the party was looking.

Mr Smith said he was disappointed nothing was found but he intended to sometime have another go.

Max Hazelton is an Australian aviation icon, he's the only man to survive a crash in the Blue Mountains and I want to find where it happened, he said.

At least I got one thing right. The low cloud and wet weather.

About 120 people gathered for the 65th anniversary reunion of former Hazelton Airlines' staff and the proudest person there was the man who started it all.

Airline founder Max Hazelton said Sunday's event at the Orange Emus' function rooms was a great chance to catch with staff he rarely saw anymore.

"It's tremendous. It's good to see how they are doing so well since the airline closed," he said.

"In the early days it was very much a family company, we felt they were all part of it."

Aside from old friends and colleagues Mr Hazelton was also reunited with the trusty old bicycle he used to ride around the company's base at Cudal Airport.

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He said he believed regional airlines today were in a reasonably good position but maintaining profitability was the key.

"I think Rex [Regional Express Airlines] are going well," he said.

"[For others] it is going to be interesting. They have got to become profitable."

He said the airlines had become a key form of transport for regional areas.

"The country people want to be able to go to the city and come home at night," he said.

Mr Hazelton said training of pilots was also vital for the future success of airlines.

He said Hazelton Airlines had tried to get involved with Qantas in training pilots several years ago.

"We had some meetings with them but nothing eventuated," he said.

However, he said now it was even more important.

"They have got to train young pilots because a lot of pilots are getting close to retirement," he said.

Hazelton's former chief engineer Charlie Stammers said he worked for the airline from 1960-1996 and had seen it grow "from six little agricultural planes up to the airline."

Mr Stammers said the airline had a large roster of planes including having seven Saab aircraft at one time.

"We had the highest daily utilisation [of Saabs] in the world, they were flying eight to nine hours a day, that was in 1990-91," he said.

Mr Stammers said he spent a lot of time at both Hazelton's engineering bases at Cudal and Sydney.

He said the reunion had allowed him to catch up with old friends.

"It's a fabulous day, some of the people here, there was someone I was speaking to just now, I hadn't seen him for 44 years. It brings back the memories," he said.