Squadron Leader John Holt & Flight Lieutenant Adam NoordinkPrint Page

The monument in the Royal Australia Air Force (RAAF) section of the Evans Head War Cemetery commemorates Squadron Leader John Francis Holt and Flight Lieutenant Adam Philip Winold Noordink who died in the line of duty.  Another memorial, at the crash site believed to be on Commonwealth Government Restricted Land, was unveiled on the same day.

On September 29, 1977,  John Holt and Phil Noordink died after their aircraft was involved in a bird-strike incident. Earlier that morning, F-111 A8-133, callsign ‘Falcon 32’, had departed RAAF Base Amberley for the Evans Head Air Weapons range to conduct a conversion course sortie. Falcon 32 had successfully completed two runs and had just turned again for the third when at least three birds, possibly pelicans, struck it in the cockpit front.

The birds smashed the cockpit canopies and may have also disabled the crew. Holt and Noordink initiated ejection well outside the safe envelope from the stricken aircraft but, tragically, the crew module struck the ground and they died. They were the first of three 6 Squadron crews who have been lost since the aircraft entered service in 1973.

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