Plane ditches in Darwin Harbour- Georgina Robinson
- February 6, 2009 - 12:18PM
Six people walked away uninjured from a light plane that ditched into Darwin Harbour today.
Glenn Campbell, an Age photographer, said the aircraft made an emergency landing into shallow water about 200 metres off shore from East Point Reserve at 8.40am local time (10.10am AEDT).
"It appears the two-engine aircraft has lost power and ditched into the ocean, on tidal flats off East Point," Mr Campbell said.
"Everyone's walked away from it, the pilot walked away from the aircraft."
Northern Territory police confirmed all five passengers and the pilot were unharmed.
The men and women waded through shallow water to a picnic area where police and ambulances were waiting, a police spokeswoman said.
The plane is owned by CSG Aviation and had just taken off. It is believed it was heading to the remote community of Maningrida, about 500km east of Darwin.
"I arrived as the passengers had disembarked, just as the pilot was wading through the ocean...(it looked like) he was the last one off the plane," Mr Campbell said.
The water in which the plane landed was only about half a metre deep, he said.
CSG is a computer technology firm that flies support and maintenance into remote areas of the Northern Territory.
According to its website, CSG owns two aircraft and usually flies from Darwin International Airport.
Resident Glenn Chandler said he was having a bike ride when he spotted two council workers staring out to sea.
"Two hundred metres off shore there's just this plane sitting in the harbour with water up to its wings and half a dozen people are standing around next to it in water up to their waists, sort of scratching their heads," Mr Chandler said.
"Then they just slowly dawdled back to shore...chatting amongst themselves, it was quite a surreal thing.
"Obviously no one was hurt because there was no panic or anything."