This is the second time that Canberra A84-225 made the front page of the newspapers. The entire front page of The Sunday Mail (then a broadsheet) of 9 January 1983 announced that QAM's Canberra had been an innocent victim of an extortion plot against Trans-Australia Airlines. At that time, the QAM aircraft collection was stored at Navy Street on Brisbane (Eagle Farm) Airport. As a demonstration of what they proposed to do to a TAA airliner, the extortionists fired a home-made projectile at the Canberra inflicting a gash in the right hand bomb bay door. Although a ransom drop was set up, it was not collected. It later emerged that the threat had been an elaborate hoax, ostensibly to highlight aviation security issues. No arrests were made. The damage to the Canberra was subsequently repaired courtesy of the RAAF. (The above image depicts only selected parts of the front page of the newspaper).

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