Three confirmed dead after firefighting plane crashes near McKinlay

Three people have been killed in a crash involving an aircraft sent to help the bushfire effort in Queensland’s northwest, as new details about what happened are revealed.

Three people have been killed in a crash involving an aircraft sent to help the bushfire effort in Queensland’s northwest.

A rescue helicopter arrived at the crash site near the Eloise Copper Mine at McKinlay, southeast of Cloncurry, on Saturday evening.

The Rescue 400 helicopter located the wreckage from the air while ground crews made their way to the site.

All three people on board the Rockwell 696 Jetprop were found dead at the scene about 5pm.

“Around 2.30pm, emergency services were contacted by a member of the public alerting them to the crash near a mine site about 40 kilometres north west of McKinlay,” a statement from Rescue 400 said.

The Rockwell 696 Jetprop that crashed in Queensland. Picture: AGAIR

Mount Isa District Officer Superintendent Tom Armitt said on Sunday morning emergency services likely knew who was on the plane but a disaster victim identification team would attend the crash site on Monday to confirm their identification and take them home.

He said the plane had been “completely destroyed by fire” and a small, remote crime scene was now being guarded by police until investigators could attend, with investigations to take several days.

“We ourselves haven’t done a thorough examination of the wreckage yet, so we have our disaster victim identification team coming tomorrow, and they will complete and confirm all those details for us,” Supt Armitt said.

“In this case, we know who was on the plane ... we will be relying on the disaster victim identification team to repatriate those deceased for the relevant post mortem examinations to occur and fully identities to be confirmed from there.

“It’s a remote area, it’s far away from the large centres where the specialists come from so we need to fly everybody in to bring them to the site to do their examinations.

“There’s a short delay, obviously people will be arriving tomorrow, so we expect to be there a number of days until that’s completed.”

A firebombing plane has crashed near the Eloise Copper Mine. IMAGE: Google Maps

Queensland Fire and Emergency Service (QFES) Deputy Commissioner Mike Wassing on Sunday said all three air crew members had close ties to fire services in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria.

“Today we have all of our flags at half mast in acknowledgement of the tragic circumstances with the three deceased air crew from yesterday and that will be right across Queensland,” he said.

“Our heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of the three deceased air crew from yesterday’s tragic incident.

“The aviation community is in mourning. And part of that aviation community includes our own personnel from the Queensland Fire and Emergency services, as well as the New South Wats Fire Service and right down to Victoria.”

It’s understood that while the aircraft was contracted from Victoria, the crash victims worked in various roles alongside Rural New South Wales and Queensland fire services.

“They are contracted from Victoria but work in Queensland, but yes, there’s a connection between some of their other roles,” Dept Commissioner Wassing said.

“(While) the contract aircraft is based in Victoria, the personnel come from different staff.”

AGAIR is part of a national contract agreement with all fire services, and assists various jurisdictions as required.

The air crew involved in the fatal incident had previously been mapping Queensland’s south west region to assist firefighting efforts in and around Tara.

“This aircrew has been involved in a lot of the operational jobs around Queensland, primarily given the fires that we’ve had in south west Queensland, they’ve been very active in mapping those locations,” Dept Wassing said.

Queensland Fire and Emergency Service (QFES) Deputy Commissioner Mike Wassing gives an update on Sunday.

QFES has grounded several aircraft - including two water bombers - which Dept Commissioner Wassing said was normal protocol following an aviation incident and would have no impact on current firefighting operations.

“It’s standard practice to ground the aircraft that might be related in terms of the airbase operations or in terms of their contracted aircrafts specifically,” he said.

“The aircraft itself that was part of this tragic incident is what we call a line scan aircraft, so it helps inform our mapping and our hotspots in terms of those aircraft, so it hasn’t had any immediate impact in terms of our air operations as far as firebombing goes.”

It is understood the air crew were heading to Mount Isa to complete further mapping for fire efforts in Far North Queensland however, it is unknown whether the plane was undertaking mapping at the time of the crash.

QFES has now shifted its focus to helping investigators access the very remote crash site and offering support to those affected by the crash.

“The initial response was to make sure that we got crews there able to safely contain that (fire)... now it’s about getting the investigators to that location because it is very remote,” Dept Commissioner Wassing said.

“Safety is paramount for our personnel. We have all support measures in place for our own people and those around us including the aviation community.

“We’re currently working very closely with those individuals.”

Joint investigations into exactly how the crash occurred are expected to take several weeks.

“I suspect this will take weeks if not months to piece the various parts together,” Dept Commissioner Wassing said.

Technical investigations into how the crash occurred were still in preliminary stages with ATSB investigators also scheduled to arrive on scene on Monday.

“We really feel for the families of the victims. At this stage, we’re in the very, very early stages of our investigation,” Supt Armitt said.

“We can’t provide any technical answers as to why this has occurred. We will do our best to provide a thorough investigation.

“ATSB who will do their investigation as far as the air side, the airworthiness of the aircraft, all those sorts of things on the technical side of the flight, and we will provide that combined report to the coroner.”

Supt Armitt said Eloise mineworkers witnessed the plane “go down” and were first on scene.

“At about 2.30pm yesterday we were advised by workers at the Eloise Mine near Cloncurry, that they observed a plane go down and then they observed a plume of smoke,” he said.

“As we were responding,we were advised that QAS and nine employees had attended the scene and confirmed the plane had crashed.

“We had confirmed that three persons were on board and that the plane was flying from Toowoomba to Mount Isa as part of the ongoing efforts to combat bushfires in the area as an intelligence and friespotting place.

“They were on contract to QFES at the time.”

Police are expected to guard the crash site for “a number of days” as forensic examiners record the site.

“It’s a difficult site to get to, obviously it’s rough country. But we have received some excellent support via the farm owner to enable that to occur,” Supt Armitt said.

“(He) has enabled our access and we will have police there 24/7.”

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services had on Saturday confirmed the deaths of the three people, saying the loss of firefighting personnel in the crash was “felt by all”.

“During natural disasters in Queensland, we respond as a family. That family includes those contracted to support our aerial operations,” it wrote on X (formally Twitter).

“Our hearts are heavy following the fatal plane crash … and the tragic loss of three people supporting our bushfire response.

“Side by side we have been fighting these bushfires as one … our thoughts and prayers are with their family, friends and those who worked alongside them, including our Air Operations personnel.”

According to flight tracker data, the plane - which was sent to conduct line scans - departed Toowoomba at 10.45am on Saturday and was due to land at Mount Isa shortly after 3pm.

The plane was operated by Victorian-based AGAIR, which has a fleet of firebombers.

In a statement, the company’s chief executive Rob Boschen confirmed the Turbo Commander Aircraft had crashed “while engaged in fire surveillance operations, south of Cloncurry”.

“AGAIR can confirm that our Turbo Commander Aircraft, registration VH-HPY has crashed during flight, while engaged in fire surveillance operations, south of Cloncurry in QLD,” he said.

“Authorities have confirmed three of our valued, and dearly loved staff were the only occupants of the aircraft, and there were no survivors.

“We are utterly devastated, and our heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with the families of our staff.

“AGAIR will provide full assistance and support to all authorities in the course of their investigations.”

The company said QFES was providing “ongoing assistance”.

QFES said the aircraft was the same type as one that is used as the lead plane for the Large Aerial Tanker (LAT).

Both the LAT and the lead plane will be grounded until advised by authorities.

“The aircraft was contracted by QFES to support the Queensland bushfire response,” it said in a statement.

“It was engaged by QFES to conduct line scans, and travelling from Toowoomba to Mount Isa when it crashed near Cloncurry.

“The cause of the crash is currently unknown and QFES will assist the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) with its investigation. There is no further information at this time.”

A QFES spokesman confirmed police and mine rescue teams are also on the scene.

The entire fleet of firefighting aircraft has been grounded while investigators examine the cause and check the fuel supply in Toowoomba, according to The Australian.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the three firefighting personnel had been doing “everything they could to protect Queenslanders”.

“I am terribly saddened by what has happened,” she said.

“I send my heartfelt condolences to the many people who have been impacted by this shocking incident.”

The deaths would hit aerial firefighting teams hard, Fire and Emergency Services Minister Mark Ryan said.

“For weeks now the teams in the air supporting the firefighting efforts have been working together to keep Queenslanders safe,” the Minister said.

“So many of them know each other, work together, dedicate themselves to the same goal, to keep everyone safe.

“To lose a team of their own will be especially hard.”

Queensland Fire Minister Mark Ryan and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk . Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has been notified of the crash and will conduct a transport safety investigation.

The Forensic Crash Unit will investigate the crash of behalf of the State Coroner.

Major fires had been impacting the Mount Isa area in recent weeks.

Queensland has faced a ferocious two weeks of fires, with devastating blazes destroying more than 18,000ha of land as well as homes and sheds in the Tara area, and serious fires forcing mass evacuations on the Sunshine Coast and the Granite Belt.

While a drop in temperatures and an increase in wet weather in recent days has offered some reprieve, there were still fears that storms predicted for throughout the weekend could bring the threat of dry lightning.

“I know people are looking forward to the storms, when storms come through we could end up with more dry lighting,” Rural Fire Service Chief Superintendent Tony Johnstone said on Friday.

On Saturday, the Bureau of Meteorology’s Brooke Pagel said the storms provided relief to firefighters and residents fighting the Tara bushfires.

“Around that region (Darling Downs) there was about 12-18mm,” she said.

Previously, crews from Canada, New Zealand, South Australia and Victoria flew into the South East to back-up exhausted Queensland fireys.

On Saturday night, there were 13 active bushfire warnings across Queensland.