Neighbours plane crash
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Neighbours plane crash was a major storyline in the successful Australian soap opera Neighbours as a way of marking its 20th Anniversary in 2005.
Paul Robinson had decided to celebrate the re-opening and 20th Anniversary of the Lassiter's complex, originally started by his aunt Rosemary Daniels in the 1980s. He decided to choose Dylan Timmins' idea to celebrate-a 1940s style joy flight to Tasmania across the Bass Strait followed by a night at a casino and a 5 star hotel. However, Paul had made several powerful enemies after he pulled out of a dodgy financial scam, and unknown to the passengers, a suspicious figure was seen putting a bomb on the plane.
The guests were supposed to be the owners of the various businesses on Lassiter's, but for some reason or other they decided not to go and so gave their tickets to their friends or family. Harold Bishop and Lou Carpenter gave their tickets to Liljana Bishop and David Bishop, whilst Karl Kennedy gave his to his ex-wife Susan and her fiancée, Alex Kinski.
The passengers on the flight were Sky Mangel, Dylan Timmins, Paul Robinson, Izzy Hoyland, Elle Robinson, Connor O'Neill, Liljana Bishop, David Bishop, Serena Bishop, Susan Smith and Alex Kinski. In addition, there were several other un-named passengers.
After much celebration, on Tuesday October 25, 2005, the characters were horrified and shocked when a bomb exploded. Though the plane remained intact, the fuel gradually ran out and the plane glided towrds the ocean. One by one characters wept, prayed, bade farewell and screamed as the plane crashed into the Bass Strait.
Susan and Izzy, two bitter rivals, were the first to surface, but Izzy left Susan to help Elle. When she looked back, Susan had disappeared. Connor and Serena were trapped in the wreckage of the plane, and though they managed to escape from it, both lost consciousness from exhaustion. Connor washed up on the beach later, but Serena was nowhere to be seen.
The following day, the passengers were rescued one by one by helicopter teams - first Paul, then Izzy, Alex, Elle and Sky. Susan was eventually found a few days later on Friday October 28, 2005, having washed up on shore in a dazed, semi-conscious state. David's body was recovered the following Thursday, but Liljana and Serena remain missing, presumed drowned. Connor and Dylan washed up safely on shore, but as they were each under criminal investigation at the time, they toyed with the idea of taking the opportunity to be assumed dead. Dylan soon learned that his brother Stingray Timmins might still be arrested and returned to face investigation - interrupting his own funeral in the process. Connor lived on the streets for some time, but was eventually discovered by Harold Bishop during his work with the Salvation Army and persuaded to come home.
On Tuesday March 28, 2006 it was revealed that the bomb was planted by Robert Robinson in an attempt to kill Paul, Elle and Izzy - all of whom survived the crash. For several months, he had been masquerading as his identical twin Cameron Robinson, who was in a coma (Robert and Cameron are two-thirds of a set of triplets, with Elle being the third member). When visiting Cameron, Robert would place his fingerprints on pieces of evidence. When Cameron finally awoke, Robert removed him from the hospital and took his place in the bed, leaving Cameron with no memory of a period where all evidence indicated he had committed heinous crimes. His scheme was almost exposed by Connor, who discovered the whereabouts of the comatose Cameron and told Robert what he thought was good news. Connor has not been seen since this encounter.
Robert's actions have since been exposed and he has been arrested, while Cameron returned to his father's house for a few months, before dying on the operating table from complications from being hit by a car being driven by Max Hoyland (who mistook Cameron for an escaped Robert as he chased Katya Kinski along the side of a road). Robert remains in prison.
The fate of Connor was revealed on Friday March 16, 2007 when Toadie received a box of Saint Patrick's Day gifts from Connor (for Toadie, Ned Parker, and Max & Steph Hoyland), which had been mailed from China (but contained no return address).
