Plane Crash Bundaberg
 

The wreckage of a light aircraft, believed to have been carrying two men, has been found in a cane paddock near Bundaberg.
The wreckage of the light aircraft was located near Fairymead Mill, North Bundaberg at first light on Tuesday, say police.
Fire and ambulance crews attended the scene. It is believed the two occupants did not survive the crash.
The aircraft departed from Bundaberg about 1.30pm (AEST) on Monday and was expected to travel to the Burrum River before returning via Childers and Gin Gin.
It was reported missing about 3.45pm.
The forensic crash unit is investigating

Such a tragedy, may the pilot and his passenger rest in peace! :(

Saw it on the news tonight. Piper Light Sport. The blue one which I assume was the one that came to Bundy early on in their release.

Nasty.

It is indeed quite nasty considering the terrain in which it came down.

http://media.apnonline.com.au/img/me...ash_1_t325.jpg

There is a story to be told in the short attached video regarding the position of the wings which is also somewhat noticeable in the above picture.

Crash claims life of two | Bundaberg News | Breaking News in Bundaberg | Bundaberg News Mail

Yes tall cane. Soft soil. Looks like it should have been survivable?

Very, very sad and ATSB should investigate this one, despite being reported as RAAus. This is a relatively new type - marketed specifically towards achieving large sales in the (rapidly expanding) GA world training market.
From the (albeit not such good quality) video and the single picture, fairly flat attitude and near vertical impact (no apparent surrounding cane damage along an approach path and engine displaced downwnwards; yaw present on impact with some but not much forward velocity (left wing displaced further forward than right wing). Flaps down but at close to 90* (possibly due to broken linkages from vertical impact force). Difficult to see from the available pictures but from apparent prop damage, engine rotating slowly at impact. Stall / spin?
If a newish GPS / flight system was fitted, the readout would be very informative.
Sincere condolences to families and friends.

Very sad for a close knit community up there. My thoughts are with the families and Max and the crew at Hinkler.

DB

What was the weather immediately before the crash ??

Bundy weather
 

At 14:30 Monday Bundaberg Airport:

Wind SE 19kt gusting to 30kt, temp 27.8, dew pt 19.3, no rain that day, QNH 1010.2.

Cloud described as 6/8 St Ac with 30,000m visibility.

VME could you amend that again, or did you mean it?

I wondered about the vis .. but that's what weatherzone said.

Bundaberg Ap history of weather reports

Might have been a flat spin.
Just an educated guess.
RIP.

Lose the engine, flare out above the level of the cane, stall & spin. Or at least drop a wing and the nose in the stall; would account for only one wing being crumpled.

Looking behind the aircraft, it doesn't look as if they dragged it through the cane.

It has all the hall marks of a loss of control in IMC very sad

Playing with the URL of that images give a larger one:

http://media.apnonline.com.au/img/me...20/crash_1.jpg

Seeing as one blade of what looks like a 3-blade Woodcomp is completely unscathed, I'd say the engine was not running at time of impact. (For those not in the know, thanks to the gearbox a Rotax will not windmill, it just stops.)

Very sad...RIP

Perhaps Piper foresaw problems with this aircraft which they haven't been associated with since early last year...it wasn't a "Piper" as such.

Piper divorces light sport partner

Bas - well done.

So an engine failure should have been OK in that terrain. I hadn't considered a loss of control in my "should have been survivable" comments.

I guess spinning in = high vertical speed & low forward speed hence it "looks" sort of intact.

Nasty

Clare Prop. - look at the rear of the aircraft, it clearly says "Piper" so it is indeed a Piper...

bob johns
 

I have been out of the industry for 21 years and for the 25 years prior,both in commercial operations and private,I never undertook a flight without opening a SARwatch. Have the rules so slackened to allow un notified flights to take place, without consideration of safety? Sadly sar probably wouldnt have affected the outcome, but at least someone would have been looking.

OK it's Wiki but it was not designed or built by Piper, just distributed by them for a short while.

CZAW SportCruiser - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia