Living at Sandy Point and rowing across the river to get to his job as a fitter at Bankstown Airport, Edward Cowley, 45, was the husband of Pat and father of four sons – Les, Ken, Ted and John who attended East Hills Boys High.
Ted was 17 and worked with his Dad; he was also the only one who knew Edward was learning to fly after work.
Waiting for the lesson to finish that fateful night on August 12 so they could head home, Ted looked up and saw the craft his father was in, an Auster monoplane (VH-AAL), and a second aircraft, a Tiger Moth biplane (VH-APF), looking like they were on top of each other and no one knows why.
The airport tower fired a red flare to alert them but instead, the Auster appeared to accelerate straight into the path of the Tiger Moth and they collided.
Young Ted jumped in a ute and drove to the scene as fast as he could but there was nothing he could do to help his Dad who died on impact.
As they struck, the two light planes had locked together and fell into thick scrub about 100m from Milperra Road.
The Auster belonged to the Kingsford Smith Aviation Flying School and was piloted by 26-year-old instructor Jaroslav Kosner.
He and his passenger, Edward, were killed, as was the 35-year-old instructor in the Royal NSW Aero Club’s Tiger Moth, Eric Marsh.
Amazingly, Marsh’s student in the Moth, David Lloyd Jones, 24, heir to the David Jones empire, escaped with only minor injuries.
This disaster happened over 60 years ago but is still rippling through generations of the Cowley family, coming to rest with Terri, a journalist, who felt compelled to tell the story while her Dad and uncles were still alive.
She has now produced this audio story as part of the 2021 National Features and Documentary Series run by the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia.
“The family take solace in that Edward would be proud of his sons,” she said.
“Ken was an Ansett chairman, Dad (John) worked for Newscorp, Les became a printer and Ted was a successful farmer.
“But they’ll never forget the night, their ‘guiding light’ father was taken from them.”
You can listen to Terri’s story, including interviews with the family, at: https://omny.fm/shows/national-features-and-documentary-series/pilot-episode-one-fm#description.
