Two die in plane crash near Adelaide

[TurbineDreamer]

Just saw this on ninemsn website. Sad news. My condolences to the families.

Two die in plane crash near Adelaide
17:37 AEST Sun May 15 2005

Two people have died in a plane crash north of Adelaide.

Police said the registered light aircraft crashed at Stonefield, near Truro, at about 3.40pm on Sunday, killing two people.

A police spokesman said the Australian Transport Safety Bureau had been informed of the crash.

No further details are immediately available.

[TurbineDreamer]

Anyone heard any further news about this accident. It doesn't seem like anything else has been reported.

[Captain Can't]

I think i saw a follow up article, on nineMSN, that mentioned it was a privately reg'd a/c and it may have been on takeoff... :(

[Kris Lovell]

Takeoff crash investigation begins
May 16, 2005
From: AAP
AIR safety investigators will travel to South Australia this morning to examine the wreckage of the light plane crash in which two people died yesterday.

A single-engined two-seater plane crashed north of Adelaide at Stonefield, near Truro, in the Barossa valley, about 3.40pm (CST), police said.
An Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) spokesman said investigators would fly from Canberra this morning to determine what caused the aircraft to crash.

The crash victims are believed to be a man in his sixties and a male teenager, but details have not been confirmed.

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DNA testing or dental records are expected to be used for formal identification.

Nuriootpa Police received an emergency call from the scene, about 300m north of a private unsealed airstrip, and officers from Nuriootpa, Berri and Morgan arrived to find debris spread over several hundred metres.

The bodies of the dead were still inside the charred remains of the cockpit.

Sergeant Bernadette Zimmerman, of Barossa police, said fire was still burning at the crash scene when officers arrived and she confirmed there had been no survivors.

"It was a two-seater plane and both people were deceased," she said.

Police said family members had watched helplessly as the plane crashed into a paddock.

Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said the plane was privately owned and registered.

The crash came just over two weeks after Australia's worst plane crash in almost 40 years.

In that disaster, all 15 people aboard a Fairchild Metroliner III commuter aircraft died when it crashed into a hillside on approach to Lockhart River in Far North Queensland.

- with The Advertiser

[Chadzat]

Unfortunately the teenager that was involved in this crash I knew and have met a few times. He was the nicest bloke you could ever imagine, hard working, enjoyed life and LOVED flying. I do not know the man in his sixties, but the family of the teenager are absolutely devastated that they have lost their son and brother.

The state of the wreckage will mean the investigation could take a while and with no black box (obviously) some things may never be answered.

We will just have to wait and see what the cause was for this horrific crash.

[KLN94]

Any word on what kind of aircraft it was?

[Chadzat]

Either a Citabria or Super decathlon

[turtle]

Terrible accident. My Thoughts and prayers go out to MS and family.

I cannot believe some slag from CH10 has been canvassing YPPF trying to get a story. I hope everyone tells her where to shove her camera.....

[Chadzat]

I haven't heard anything about that!? Thats pretty low. The family are obviously quite devastated and so have not wanted to be on camera which is why the media attention has been focussed on the son of the older guy involved.

Now that two fatal crashes have happened in the past few weeks I guess we have to expect the media to get all excited. Its really a shame they can't respect those involved.

[Desert Flower]

Was this the MS that was flying a Cherokee Six last year for the other person that was in the aircraft with him? They were doing trips up North (Birdsville etc.) in it. If so, I knew them both well. But I thought MS was a lot older than 17?

DF.

[turtle]

Desert Flower

The older pilots initials were GT.

[Desert Flower]

The older pilots initials were GT.

Yes, I know. And it would seem that my worst fears have been realised. :sad:

DF.

[Puchatek]

Deepest sympathies to the families involved. I can't even begin to imagine what they are going through.:(

[Chadzat]

I have just noticed the coincidence between rego's whehn looking for this thread again. The metro was registered TFU and the citabria was TUF.

[7gcbc]

Sincere Condolences to all families involved, any Ppruners have an update on the circumstances that led to this tragedy ?

[muddergoose]

Chadzat

The callsign of the cheyenne that crashed last year was TNP and another post suggests a Partenavia crashed in WA callsign PNT.

[jet fuel only]

condolences to friends and family.

"The businessman and the 17-year-old man died when the two-seater Citabria aircraft plunged into a field near Truro"

"The plane crashed and burst into flames moments after taking off from a private airfield, near Truro"

"the plane did not have a flight recorder, investigators will have to rely on the plane's maintenance records and witness accounts to determine what happened."

JFO

[7gcbc]

Correct Sunfish, edited to remove speculation and in respect to the families involved.

my mistake.

cheers

7g

[Sunfish]

Please wait and don't speculate. Condolences to the families.

[Capt EFIS]

This is the latest from "The Advertiser" (17 May 05)....

SPECULATION was raised yesterday that a plane which crashed near Truro in South Australia had been performing aerobatic stunts before it nose-dived into the ground and burst into flames.

Veteran pilot Graeme Taylor, 64, of Mawson Lakes, and Matthew Smith, 17, of McLaren Vale, were killed in the crash in the state's Mid Murray region about 3.45pm on Sunday.
The two-seater Citabria plane they were in is built for aerobatic displays.

Mr Taylor, who had been flying for more than 40 years, was well-known for his aerobatic skills – performed both in New Zealand and Australia.

Matthew, an aviation student at Parafield Airport, was the son of British aerobatics expert Martin Smith. His family had recently moved to South Australia.

It is not known who was in control of the dual-control aircraft in the seconds before the crash.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau would not comment on whether an aerobatics display may have contributed to the crash. ATSB safety investigator Bryan Aherne said it would take some time before the inquiry was complete and a cause of the accident was known.

"We'll be here for a number of days," he said. "At this stage we don't which occupant of the plane was the pilot.

"It is quite a horrific scene. The aircraft is severely damaged and burnt out. There's not a lot left of it."

Mr Smith's mother and sister, also a student pilot, were watching when the plane crashed.

Mr Taylor had flown his wife Anne, 59, back to the Parafield Airfield shortly before the crash.

Mr Taylor's son Ashley, 39, was yesterday shown through the wreckage by investigators. He said the family was grateful the crash had not claimed his mother.