Many Australians know the story of 'Mr Brown's' 1971 Qantas bomb hoax. But few know the ongoing trauma experienced by the passengers onboard that fateful flight.
She was 11 years old at the time, and travelling with her mum and younger brother from Sydney to Rome via Hong Kong.Stream your favourite shows on the free ABC listen app
"They were slitting the seats we were sitting on to see if there was anything inside the actual seats … the plane looked like it was a wreck," she says. "It was basically, 'Okay, you're bilingual — you're coming with us'. My parents were very, very distressed and distraught," Tonina Guerra recalls. After the replica device was found in the locker, Qantas staff decided to test it to see if it really was altitude sensitive. They replaced the gelignite with a light bulb.
" 'Just deliver it to me. I'm going to turn up in a canary yellow Kombi van outside the front door of Qantas House'," Mr Hogan explains. With the help of tip-offs from the public it didn't take police long to bring both Macari and Poynting in for questioning. "I really think we got treated poorly because we were migrants in this country and we were not seen as equal," Carmel Guerra says.Due to Tonina Guerra's chronic fear of flying, she hasn't been able to return to Italy since 1971.For example, since that flight, Tonina Guerra has not been able to fly. She also attributes the breakdown of her marriage to that event.
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