In the early morning hours on a Monday in May 1951, a lone plane lifted off from Madang on the New Guinea north coast, and set course inland. At the controls was a quietly spoken Australian, a veteran of WWII B-24 anti-submarine operations.
Harry Hartwig was the first MAF PNG pilot and with his young family took up residence at Madang in April 1951. On the 7th of May 1951, took his first operational flight with the Australian registered Auster aircraft VH-KAN.
It was a promising start with many hours of flying logged over the next three months. However, late in the afternoon of Monday 6th August, the aircraft was reported overdue back from a day’s flying in the Highlands.
The fate of the radio-less aircraft and its pilot might have forever remained a mystery, had a local schoolteacher at a mission outpost near the Asaroka Gap not seen an aircraft that afternoon circling in and out of cloud, before hearing an impact on the mountain.
Immediately he dispatched two boys to carry the message to Asaroka, but it would still be another 1 and a half days before the aircraft and the body of its pilot was located, 300 feet below the Gap. Not long before, Harry had written the prophetic comment in a report: ‘A local knowledge of the weather and topography is essential, and familiarisation flights will be of great value in this respect.’
It was PNG’s rugged terrain of rainforest carpeted topography, dotted with isolated hamlets where mission stations were set up, that brought the fledgling Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF) into existence. No more than three years earlier, a small group of Christian airmen returning to civilian life after world war two, had met together at a Bible college in Melbourne to discuss the possibility of employing their wartime military aircrew training to provide an air service to remote area missions. This led to the founding of Missionary Aviation Fellowship in Australia – although at the outset, it was not even clear which areas most needed the services of such an operation.
Today, MAF is the longest-serving aviation operator in PNG and is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. MAF has a team of around 100 national and 40 international staff, spread across 11 bases, MAF is partnering with local church groups, missionaries, NGOs, development and relief agencies, and government departments who are working to change the lives of those living in remote areas.
For some of the most remote parts of PNG and the world, MAF’s presence is still as critical as it was 70 years ago ensuring that remote communities can have access to healthcare, education, safe water, and the Gospel.
All MAF aircraft will fly the 70th anniversary logo for the rest of 2021.