Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:32:42 +0100 (BST) From: Kyron Cameron Subject: aboriginal_farmboy / aboriginal_farmboy_postscript It is my sad duty to offer a postscript to the Aboriginal Farmboy series, and I do this on behalf of my father, James MacMannis, and my brothers whom you know as Connie and Chris. On Wednesday 7th March 2007 at around 7 am a Garuda Airlines Boeing 737-400 jet burst into flames when it overshot the runway on landing at Yogyakarta Airport in Indonesia on a routine 440 kilometre flight from Jakarta. There were 133 passengers and 7 crew on that plane, 22 were killed in the crash and another 91 were hospitalised with severe burns, many subsequently evacuated to Australia for intensive care. James MacMannis was one of those killed. Apparently the aircraft was swaying as it approached the airport and many passengers reported that it was travelling too fast for a normal landing. Passengers had been warned the flight would be turbulent. Survivors said the plane was slammed to the ground and skidded forward and slammed once again before it ploughed across the end of the runway, across a road, hit a bank and a culvert and went into a paddy field. When it hit the bank and the culvert, it exploded. The plane was manufactured in 1992, had its last major inspection last month and had logged 34,960 flight hours. We three have lost a father, friend and the greatest man you could ever know. We bought James back to Perth, Western Australia, with some of his senior staff. The funeral was held in his home church with hundreds of his close friends in attendance. My brothers and I became the successors to his business interests and we have been well occupied learning how to deal with the complexities of his enterprises. James left a lot of notes on his writing because his intention had always been to complete the stories he started. It would be possible to pick up the thread and continue the series, but I doubt that will ever do that. I am not an eloquent writer as he was, nor do I think I could convey the emotion he was able to. It will be best for all that we let his stories stand as a testament to the wonderful man he was. Unfortunately the last link to James was severed when the Aboriginal Farmboy Yahoo Group was closed on July 12th 2007 without warning because a subscriber posted some inappropriate material. Should you wish to contact me or my brothers, please do so on my email: kyroncameron@yahoo.com Love to you all Kyron C MacMannis (Nick)