Qantas Rising
In 1966 Sir Hudson Fysh, who was the founder of Qantas and had been chief executive at the time that Norman was killed, published 'Qantas Rising', a book about the early days of Qantas. The book is still in print today (2010).
In that book Sir Hudson referred briefly to the accident and suggested that 'pilot fatigue' was a possible cause and stated that Norman had had a 'late night' before starting the fatal trip. This suggestion caused considerable distress to Norman's widow Ella and to other family members, since there was no contemporaneous evidence to that effect, and contrary evidence from his widow and from his father-in-law that he had been in bed by 9.30pm.
When this was pointed out to Sir Hudson, he wrote to Ella to apologise and stated that he would see that a 'suitable alteration' would be made in further printings. Sadly however this did not happen, and Sir Hudson died before the error could be remedied.
Macarthur Job, in his 2005 review of the accident, considered the suggestion that the pilot had 'dozed off at the controls', but discounted it as inconsistent with the evidence from the crash site and concluded that something 'far more dramatic must have occured to cause it [the accident]'.
Copies of correspondence:
From Geoff Chapman (Norman's son) to Sir Hudson Fysh, 7th Nov 1966
From Sir Hudson to Ella Chapman, 15th November 1966