Vic Pisani recounts forced landing of plane in Mary Valley | Video

The terrifying descent of a plane as it lost altitude and crash landed minutes after taking off from the Gympie aerodrome on Monday has been captured with the brave pilot living to tell the tale. WATCH THE VIDEO

An experienced pilot on his way from Gympie to Warwick has recounted the terrifying moment he realised his plane was rapidly losing altitude and he was going to have to put down somewhere over the Mary Valley on Monday morning.

Vic Pisani had just left the Gympie airport at Kybong about 10am and had set his light plane controls to “cruise” when he noticed his gauges were starting to show he was losing altitude.

“I just couldn’t get any more power,” he said from an ambulance stretcher at the scene before being taken to Gympie Hospital.

“It rapidly lost power. I couldn’t get it restarted, and so I was immediately looking for a place to put down.”

Mr Pisani said he could see an airstrip nearby but his plane was already too low to get into a good position to land there, and there were too many nearby trees.

Light plane pilot Vic Pisani after he was forced to crash land in a paddock just south of Kandanga on Monday, June 13m 2022.

“Luckily, I avoided the fence on the way in. I almost got it stopped when the nose wheel dug into a hole and it flipped on its head,” he said.

Mr Pisani, a 30 year aviation veteran, had never been through anything like that before. He was able to easily get himself out of the cabin despite the plane being upside down.

Pilot Vic Pisani next to his crashed plane which he was forced to land in a paddock at Melawondi after the engine cut out, captured by Matt Frost

The paddock where the plane was put down was near Melawondi and Ernst Rds, just south west of Kandanga.

Mr Pisani was the sole occupant.

The frightening moments of the crash were captured on camera by Matt Frost, who was building a home on the rural block with Marty Reinwald.

The pair said the knew something was wrong when they heard the engine cut out.

“Oh Jesus,” one of the pair can be heard saying as they begin filming the plane’s descent.

As the plane continues to lose altitude they realise “this is not going to be good”.

“There’s nowhere to f-----g … (land) … he’s coming in here … where’s he going to f-----g land here?

“He’ll have to go into one of these paddocks.”

As the plane nears property one says he “hopes the plane doesn’t crash into the house”, at which point it banks left and heads for the paddock.

Mr Reinwald begins sprinting towards the plane as it touches down; when it flips he cries out for the landowners to “call an ambulance”.

Matt Frost and Marty Reinwald witnessed the crash and caught it on camera.

Property owner Tony Coxhead, who has only owned the land, was in his shed when the crash happened.

“He got the nose up just enough to get over the fence,” Mr Coxhead said.

Land owners Susie and Tony Coxhead rushed to help Mr Pisani after the crash.

Mr Pisani almost had a clean landing in the paddock until “the nose dug in and all the prop (propeller) and over it went”.

“He’s a pretty lucky man,” Mr Coxhead said.

“My wife went running down … with the builders and she’s on the phone.

“He was out, and he was just walking around it.”