From the ABC: Story and file pics.
Police divers are trying to recover the body of a 75-year-old pilot who died when his light plane smashed into a lake in the New South Wales Upper Hunter Valley this morning.
The Air Tractor 802 aircraft was performing a water-skimming exercise over Lake Liddell, near Muswellbrook, when it hit the water and crashed at about 9:15am AEDT.
The aircraft was seen skimming across the water before it went down and disappeared into the lake about 100 metres from the shoreline.
The pilot, who is believed to be well-known in the Hunter Valley aviation community, was unable to escape the plane.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority said the plane was practicing scooping up water as part of practice drills ahead of the bushfire season.
Penelope Little from the Ambulance Service says paramedics tried to reach the man who was still in the plane, but were unsuccessful due to the depth of the water.
The wreckage came to rest 10 metres down.
It is unclear whether the pilot was working for the New South Wales Fire Brigade or the Rural Fire Service.
"It was an aircraft practicing picking up water ... it was a firefighting aircraft," Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said. "It's touched the surface of the lake, flipped over and sank."
The Air Transport Safety Bureau is investigating.
My sincere condolences to all affected by the loss of Col Pay, a legend in his own time.
RIP,
ABX