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aircraft down near bathurst

November 7, 2008 - 9:01PM
Source: ABC
"The New South Wales Fire Brigade says a plane has crashed just outside of Bathurst in the state's central west.
Fire fighters are on the scene at Forest Grove and say there is a large amount of fire and grass alight"

Hope they are OK

damn I hate to hear this:sad: 4 confirmed dead in a Cherokee light plane crash west of BTH.

RIP fellow aviators

CW

Another sad incident... is it just me, or are they becoming more common? or is the media just reporting more on such incidents, especially since the wealth of material provided to journos by Qantas?

For the record, current Bathurst TAF:

BATHURST (YBTH)
TAF YBTH 070504Z 0708/0720
36012KT CAVOK
FM070800 36010KT 9999 LIGHT RAIN SCT030 BKN070
INTER 0708/0720 4000 RAIN BKN010
RMK FM070800 MOD TURB BLW 5000FT TILL 072000

T 21 18 16 15 Q 1007 1008 1008 1005

METAR YBTH 071100Z AUTO 07005KT 9999NDV // BKN087 OVC100 16/13 Q1011
RMK RF00.0/000.8

A PA31 is being reported as the aeroplane, perhaps an engine failure in the soup and an assy issue?

Not good at all, more taken from us before their time.

RIP

With rain about likely was a very dark night. Sounds to me like disorientation after takeoff and flew into the ground shortly after. Will all come out in the investigation no doubt poor souls. If I'm right,
the old saying your are on instruments or visual not both holds true.

And here we go again. Anybody else want to play Air Safety Investigator and leap to a conclusion before the bodies are cold?

It won't be long before the first "condolences to the families concerned" appear.

Followed by the spelling police.

Give me some credit, Wiz, I let that part go completely. ;)

Channel 10 late news reported the aircraft was a Piper Navajo from Victoria.

Sadly it was a Navajo as mentioned by the ATSB owned & operated by a Vitorian man. Name available (owner) as public knowledge but I don't wish to say as much.

Was lousy wx in most places last night, always a concern & seeing as there was no mayday call it seems as though it all happened very quickly.
Hopefully we can learn something from this terrible tragedy.

CW

Why not assess the facts as they are known? A lot of people are interested in the subject and want to offer an opinion. Yes the ATSB report will have a lot more detail and better analysis than is available here, but the Final Report won't be available until 2010 at the earliest.

A wet dark night with a high speed impact, it's not unreasonable to conclude that disorientation was a contributing factor.

I think ALL speculation is unresonable.:=
There are bout a 100.000 things that bring a plane down. and disoriontation is only one off them.

If his wing has fallen off due to whatever than the wx has nothing to do with it. etc etc.

But thats just my opinion.

Ofcourse we can speculate and why not. If you have a look at the weather map there is simular conditions over much of the east coast all weekend. Hopefully by doing so it will prevent another needless loss of life.

anyone know the rego?

Wow what a terrific looking machine, winglets, four bladers all setup for icing conditions, and it's a Chieftain not a Navajo, looks like is has aircon too.

I've never seen winglets on a PA31 before!

Quote:

A Victoria Police officer and her son were among four people who were killed when the light plane they were travelling in crashed into a hillside near Bathurst, in NSW's central west, last night.
Leading Senior Constable Erin Condon, who was stationed at Ashburton police station, and her son, Matthew Thomas Condon, died at the scene, Victoria Police said this morning.
Police said the twin-engine aircraft, registered to a Melbourne address, had just taken off from Bathurst for Taree when it crashed and burst into flames. There was no mayday call.
Emergency services were called just before 8.30pm and arrived at the crash site about 20 minutes later. Debris was strewn over several hundred metres, and a large area of grass was alight.
"There are four people who we believe were on board, who have died," a police spokeswoman said. "I believe it has burst into flames."
She later confirmed that four bodies had been found, and local police said at least one of the victims was a child.
A spokesman for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said the aircraft was believed to be a Piper Navajo PA-31, capable of carrying six people.
It was registered in Australia in 1989 and was owned and operated by Timothy O'Brien of Beaumaris in Victoria.
Bruce Hodson, who owns the farm where the crash occurred, said the plane had crashed a kilometre from his house.
"There is nothing left of the aircraft," he said.
Mr Hodson, whose farm is used to teach school children about rural life, said he was surprised by the location of the crash.
"It's not on the flight path."
Ray Pickard, his wife, Cindy, and their children Tim, 8, and Clare, 6, had just sat down to watch television.
"We heard two loud bangs, close together," Mr Pickard said. "It had just started raining and we thought it was a loud thunderclap. We thought 'That's unusual' and we looked out the window and could see flames about 300 metres away."
He phoned Mr Hodson, who was driving home from dinner in Bathurst.
"We arrived back to see all the police, ambulances and the fire brigade, and found a small plane had crashed," Mr Hodson said.

Source: Officer dies in crash - National - smh.com.au

It was a PA-31 350 Chieftain with Panther conversion. Reduced to a 6 seat executive interior, with all the extra's under the sun such as DVD players, Wingtips etc. A sad day for everyone when an aircraft equipped for those conditions and that level of experience behind the yoke goes in. Believe that this was a King Island airlines machine before the sale and subsequent conversion.