Young witness recounts final moments of doomed Angel Flight before crashing in Suttontown, killing all three people on board

A YOUNG boy has given a harrowing account of the final moments of the doomed Angel Flight that claimed the lives of three people near Mount Gambier.

• Tragic end for Angel flight
• Angel flight tributes: Pilot Grant Gilbert a community stalwart
• Theories: What brought down Rossair flight over Renmark

“PLANE falls mum”.

These were the words of a three-year-old child who was one of the last people to see the doomed Angel Flight plane before it fell from the sky on Wednesday.

Grant Hill School student Emily Redding, 16, her mother Tracy Redding, 43, and pilot Grant Gilbert, 78, were killed when the plane came down in a field near the intersection of Sunnybrae and Walker roads in Suttontown, near Mount Gambier.

Tracy Redding. Picture: Facebook

Emily Redding. Picture: Facebook

Local resident Chantelle Paterson said she initially dismissed her young son Alick’s insistent claims that he saw a plane plummet to the ground as they walked to playgroup.

Ms Paterson said Alick told her “plane falls mum”.

“My son kept telling me he saw a falling plane,” she told The Advertiser.

Pilot Grant Gilbert. Picture: Facebook

“I myself didn’t see the plane but my son said he saw a plane falling and I told him ‘no buba they fly, it’s flying.

“It sounded extremely low.”

Ms Paterson said she heard a “loud plane” at the time but did not think anything of it.

“My partner said he wasn't sure if he saw a bit of smoke or cloud when my son was trying to tell us to look at it,” she said.

“I didn’t believe him until later that day when we found out and I realised what he was trying to tell me earlier in the morning.”