Originally Posted by
aroa
Anything further on this. Reason for crash. Landing? Engine failure in cruise. etc?
The headline of an
article in the West Australian yesterday was
"Pilot killed in light plane crash near Norseman was doing mining exploration surveys". The article is behind a paywall and there's no mention of the incident on the ATSB investigations yet.
Possible repeat of the -210 crash up Mt Isa way last year? I hope not...
EDIT: IF you go into the code of that website, you'll find a reference to it being a 206 as well as the following text:
A pilot who died in a light plane crash in the Goldfields-Esperance region was undertaking aerial surveys for a mining project when his Cessna 206 hit the ground.
Norseman Aerodrome reported the single-engine aircraft was overdue about 6.10pm on Thursday, prompting an air search by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority Joint Rescue Coordination Centre. Its staff found the plane completely destroyed about 124km west of the town just before 1am on Friday. “We’re still waiting to hear exactly what happened,” Norseman Aerodrome general manager Peter Fitchat said on Monday.
WA Police Inspector Wayne Hawes said the pilot was yet to be formally identified but there were “a number of indicators” that suggested who he was so his next of kin had been informed. Believed to be aged his 30s, he was the sole occupant on-board and was conducting the aerial surveys for an exploration project, Shire of Dundas president Laurene Bonza said.
The area where the crash occurred is thick with vegetation so caretakers for a mothballed mine in the area had to use heavy equipment to carve out a 24km track to give ATSB investigators access. “It’s quite a wooded area where it happened,” Mr Fitchat said. Inspector Hawes said the caretakers had done remarkable work assisting the investigation.
The ATSB expects to release a preliminary report in about six to eight weeks.