Two men are dead after their light plane crashed and burst into flames near a regional airfield on the Gold Coast seconds after take-off, sparking an intense blaze. The plane was flying towards Barraba.
Water bombers were called in to help control the bushfire that raged for hours after the fully fuelled aircraft went down north of the Gold Coast, killing its two occupants.
Emergency crews rushed to Heck Field, a private airstrip at Jacobs Well, after the two-seater Van’s RV-8A light aircraft crashed in nearby bushland about 6am on Tuesday.
The 73-year-old pilot from Beenleigh and a male passenger, believed to be from Sydney, were killed when the aircraft went down soon after clearing the runway, police said.
The wreckage caught alight on impact, sparking a large fire about 500 metres from the airstrip in terrain emergency services found difficult to access.
“That crash has been so significant that both occupants were unable to survive,” Superintendent Brett Jackson said on Tuesday.
The pilot’s next of kin met with police after they were notified of the tragedy.
“As you can imagine, it is quite a traumatic experience for them right now,” Superintendent Jackson said.
Transport safety investigators arrived on site on Tuesday afternoon.
It had been reported to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau that the aircraft crashed shortly after take-off.
“The aircraft was destroyed in a post-impact fire, and the pilot and passenger on board were fatally injured,” the bureau’s chief commissioner, Angus Mitchell, said in a statement.
The bureau said it would gather evidence and examine the site and wreckage over coming days, recovering “aircraft components of interest” for further examination.
Investigators will also conduct interviews and collect relevant recorded information including flight tracking data and CCTV footage along with pilot and aircraft maintenance records.
Police said earlier that the pilot’s flight history would be part of the investigation.
“We are aware the planned flight was to a small town just outside of Tamworth, so we have that information,” Superintendent Jackson said.
“As to the intention behind the trip, I don’t actually have that information; that will form part of the investigation.”
New England Times has since confirmed that the plane was headed to Barraba.
A large plume of smoke could be seen kilometres from the crash site late on Tuesday morning, while about 50 emergency services personnel were on the scene.
The crash site was difficult for ambulance, police, and fire crews to access due to farmland and a nearby creek.
SES crews helped ferry resources, including forensic equipment, across a creek to the crash site, police said.
Water bombers were deployed to assist crews working to contain the large bushfire burning through nearby cane paddocks and vegetation.
More than 60 hectares of land had been affected as crews worked to bring the fire under control.
The fire was finally contained about midday, but continued to burn on Tuesday afternoon.
“Conditions are not great for suppressing fire today, and we’re seeing that in the erratic fire behaviour over the last couple of hours,” Rural Fire Service Queensland Chief Officer Joel Gordon said.
“Also, the speed in which this fire has grown with the southeaster that’s blowing, which is supposed to get up to around about 30 kilometres an hour.”
The Gold Coast Sport Flying Club, which is based at the Heck Field, declined to comment on the incident.
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