Thurs "The Australian"
Six die as plane goes down in storm
By Steve Creedy and Carmel Egan
July 29, 2004
BAD weather has been blamed for the deaths of six people after a corporate aircraft crashed in rugged terrain in northern Victoria yesterday.
The Piper PA-31T Cheyenne plane was on a private business trip from Sydney's Bankstown airport for particle board manufacturers D&R Henderson.
It disappeared at 11.08am, 33km southeast of Wangaratta, shortly after the pilot announced he was lining up for an instrument landing at Benalla using the global positioning system. The wreckage was found just before dusk 30km east-southeast of Benalla.
Local police said debris from the plane was strewn over steep, inhospitable terrain. Paramedics were winched down to the crash site from a helicopter.
"They were able to get to the plane but had to leave rather quickly because the wreckage was discovered just after dusk," Superintendent Trevor Carter said.
The plane is believed to have burst into flames on impact, with the nose showing signs of fire damage.
Last night five police officers reached the wreckage by foot to secure the sight for the arrival today of the Victorian state coroner and investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
Among the victims were D&R Henderson director Robert Henderson, his daughter Jacqui and pilot Kerry Endicott.
Mr Endicott had 1500 hours flying time and the twin-turboprop aircraft, built in 1979 and first registered in Australia in 1984, was said to be in good condition.
The other passengers -- a woman and two men -- were understood to be friends of Mr Henderson accompanying him on a weekly business trip to look at the company's operations in Benalla, 160km north of Melbourne.
A Henderson family member said the crash would devastate the family-owned business, established in 1964 and now operating in five states with more than 400 employees.
"He's a company director, he's a wonderful man, my father's brother ... everyone's going to be absolutely devastated," Mr Henderson's niece, Kim, said last night. "We're just trying to come to terms with the immediate findings."
The aircraft was flying in bad weather and one theory is that the pilot may have punched the wrong co-ordinates into the global positioning system and headed away from the correct track.
Rescuers began to fear the worst when the aircraft did not respond to mobile phone or radio calls and there was no sign of an emergency transmitter.
Helicopters flying into the area to help with the search reported serious difficulties getting through.
Richard Shanley, a farmer living in Myrrhee Valley, specu lated the plane may have been off course because the flight path for smaller aircraft on the Sydney-to-Benalla route is usually further to the north of his property.
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