The Connellan air disaster was a suicide attack at Alice Springs Airport, Northern Territory, Australia, on 5 January 1977. The attack was carried out by a disgruntled former employee of Connellan Airways (also known as Connair), who flew a Beechcraft Baron into the Connair complex at the airport. The attack killed the pilot and four other people and injured four more, two of them seriously. The disaster is one of only two aircraft suicide attacks in Australia's history, the other being in 1982 at Bankstown Airport. Background The perpetrator, Colin Richard Forman, was 23 years old at the time of the attack. Forman, born in the United Kingdom, had migrated by himself to Australia as a young adult. In 1974, he had attempted to forge an airline ticket to England. The forgery was detected and Forman had a conviction recorded against him. In November 1975, Forman qualified as a commercial pilot; he started flying for Connair in January 1976. His conviction for forgery became known to his employers, and, after seven weeks with Connair, Forman was dismissed. He found work as a pilot at Ord Air Charter in Wyndham, Western Australia, but was soon terminated there as well. Forman apparently believed that the proprietor of Connair, Roger Connellan, had informed Ord Air about Forman's conviction. In late 1976, Forman was living in Mount Isa, Queensland, eking out a living flying occasional charter flights in a single-engine Cessna for freight and tourists, and where he was a member of the Mount Isa Aero Club. In about October 1976, he told a fellow member and local North West Star journalist, "If I don't get a job by Christmas then you will get to know, and through you most of the world will know". He attended the club's 1977 New Year's Eve party. Attack Early on the morning of 3 January 1977, Forman trashed his one-bedroom flat in Mount Isa in a fit of rage, piled up the remnants in a corner of his lounge room and created what was later described as an altar. On the top was a trophy for topping his course (Blue Flight) at the former Cessnock, New South Wales, Nationwide Aviation Space Academy, and in front of the trophy was his pilot's log book, laid open. On the date of Forman's sacking from Connair, an entry read: "Sentenced to death this date", and the final page of his