Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:32:42 +0100 (BST)
From: Kyron Cameron <kyroncameron@yahoo.com>
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)