Rogue Element

Sydney, 0705 Zulu, Friday, 1 May

ABC Radio 702: ‘And something just to hand… The crash site of Qantas Flight 1 has been located. A spy satellite photo, showing the 747 crashed on a ridge line in central Sulawesi, Indonesia, has just been released in a joint press conference given by the Minister for Defence, Hugh Greenway, the Australian Defence Forces Commander, Air Vice Marshal Ted Niven, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service Director-General, Graeme Griffin, and the Indonesian Ambassador Parno Batuta.

‘It is believed the photo was released a short time earlier to a stunned Indonesian parliament. Questions were raised in the Indonesian parliament about whether the Indonesian army had prior knowledge of the existence of the photo.

‘The Indonesian air force officer heading up the search, Colonel Ari Ajirake, has denied that the military had been keeping the photo secret. He said that, now the exact coordinates of the downed plane were known, a rescue team could immediately be dispatched to the site. He also said it wasn’t surprising that the site hadn’t been located sooner, given the remote nature of the plane’s location.

‘Just to repeat the news: the crash site of the Qantas 747 that went missing in the early hours of last Wednesday morning Eastern Australian time in Indonesian airspace, has been located…’