Plane missing in north Queensland on way to Horn Island
 

A LIGHT PLANE is missing after it failed to reach Horn Island in the Torres Strait in far north Queensland.
Authorities do not know how many passengers are on board the light aircraft, which departed Cairns this morning.
The pilot last made contact with the mainland just before 8am.
A joint sea and air search is under way in the vicinity of Horn Island.
The plane is believed to be a charter operator based in Cairns and is believed to have gone missing between Coen and Horne Island.
A Horn Island airport worker said it was believed to be a Shrike Aero Commander aircraft.

Aw crap... fingers crossed

Dam!! not good news at all. i hope i can wake up tomorrow morning to read some good news in this thread..

Bugger. Know a few up there on the shrieks.

Anyone have any more info? Hoping for the best....

Can anyone tell me who the pilot was by PM of course, I have a very good friend flying the shrike out of cairns.

VH-WZU. Amity pilot on board. So far they have found a life jacket only.

If anybody knows the pilot involved a pm with initials would be appreciated. Hopefully some good news to come.

Flightech Pty Ltd

Not good !

Fingers X

If anyone can send me the pilots details that would be great.

I have a very bad feeling it is an east air flight under amity aoc

Heard BBN Centre try and raise him this morning. I got that horrible feeling in my gut straight away. Same thing happened when I was in Darwin and saw that black smoke at the end of the runway last year.

All we can do is hope for the best. Wx has not been great up there today, will make the search even harder.

Thanks to the guys who pm'd me. Not the person I was hoping it wasn't. But still someone's mate/family so all the best with the search.

ABC

Authorities have suspended a search for a pilot and plane missing plane in far north Queensland.

The plane disappeared on a trip from Cairns to Horn Island in the Torres Strait around 8.00am (AEST) on Thursday.

Tracy Jiggins from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority says 13 aircraft have been searching the all day without success.

She says a fresh search will resume in the morning.

"There has been no distress call or mayday from the aircraft and no beacon activation," she said.

"We searched all of the Islands around the area where he may landed - all with nil result as well."

Queensland Police spokeswoman Chelsea Rogers says "it's unknown how many people were onboard, but it's believed it may just be the pilot".

Re the quote....
"Its unknown how many people were on board,........"

Doesn't anyone use a 'flight note' anymore..??

Seeing as how we don't have a dedicated 'Flight Following Service' anymore, at least the P.O.B. / route / endurance, plus ELT's etc details is kept 'in the office' at point of departure..??

Very sad for all concerned, including those who have to go to search for 'unknown' numbers of potential survivors.....

Sad indeed - but the mind 'boggles'....:(:(

Fair call Griffo ! - If this was charter operation could you have an Ops Manual that allows you to depart on a fairly long flight with no flight plan, or flight note left, and for the operator to not know at least POB ?

Basically as such you have no idea who it is, how many people, and a real idea of where they even 'could' or might be. Really feel for the guys in Canberra at AMSA trying to co-ordinate a rescue with no information to go on when it's peoples lives and loved ones you are talking about !

No info you would assume it was VFR as well ?

NOSAR.......No Details......No SENSE.....

It used to be called.:ugh::ugh:

Something about 'self responsibility'.....used to be called.....common 'dog'.....

and the 'finer' points were....'Airmanship'.!!!

Sadly....doesn't seem to exist anymore, to the detriment of......

:ugh:

Well I managed to find the pilots name after many phone calls, shame no one PM'd me as requested.

Please stop the disrespectful comments about lack of flight plan etc, even if you are right it is in very poor taste.

Think Dick changed that airspace didn't he? Fond memories of Weipa flight service. Ahhh those were the days.
Any news of the crew?

C'mon Griffo,

The only thing that your mind should boggle at it is what appears to me to again be some media misrepresentation...

In other words, without going into it too far, I would be stunned if the flight was other than an IFR flight (given the weather conditions in Cairns when the aircraft departed yesterday...) and it was conducted by the usual operator of the aircraft (mentioned above), therefore...

POB could simply have been established by a telephone call to the aircraft operator, or even better - given that you are required to state POB on taxi at a controlled aerodrome for CHTR flights, maybe our dilemma could have been solved with a phone call to Cairns ATC??

To be honest, I reckon the people that matter at AMSA / AusSAR etc would be in the know as to the POB.

You are barking up the wrong tree with the no SAR / no details scenario in this case - although I emphatically agree it is a weak course of action for pilots to take.

From what I see out my window this morning, a search is going to be difficult today. Hoping for the best, but sadly preparing for the worst.

What was the turbulence like in the area yesterday?

Can't help wondering if we'll see another Aerocommander with the wings snapped off outboard of the engines, parked inverted in the scrub with the gear extended :sad:

I know a little about what happened.

It was 1 POB who was doing a cray run for amity. Bizzy it wasnt East Air.

I heard that his plane was given as traffic to an aircraft taking off from Horn so I would say he was IFR. Also heard that he was holding to wait for a passing shower.

That is all I know.