Pilot’s body found as search for missing plane off South Stradbroke Island continues
Police have confirmed the body of the pilot of a plane that went missing off the Gold Coast has been found. His passenger – a young mother who was flying with him as a birthday gift – remains missing, feared dead.
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Police have confirmed the body of the pilot of a joyflight plane that went missing off the Gold Coast on Wednesday has been found.
Dutch national Marcel van Hattem, 52, who lives on the Gold Coast, was flying a 31-year old female friend on a birthday joy flight on Wednesday in his Russian-built Yak-52 ‘warbird’ when it is believed to have crashed off South Stradbroke Island.
His body was found in the wreckage of the plane off the island.
“Police will continue to search for the remainder of the wreckage and the missing passenger,” a police statement said.
The 31-year-old Gold Coast woman, a mother of an 11-year-old girl, was meant to celebrate her birthday today and had taken the joyflight on the Yak-52 as an early birthday present.
Police say Mr van Hattem’s family in the Netherlands were notified of his disappearance.
His German shepherd Dog has been seen lying forlornly at the front gate of his northern Gold Coast home.
Before his death was confirmed, a shocked neighbour of the missing pilot said: “If he has died, he died doing what he loved - he absolutely loved flying.”
“He was a great neighbour and a very adventurous sort of guy,” the neighbour said.
“He was a thinker and loved life.
“He was just a great guy and really well liked.”
The neighbour said the pilot had flown his plane low over their street on the northern Gold Coast.
“That’s the sort of guy he was,” he said.
“I only found out about six months ago that he had a plane because he asked me to come up with him. I never got around to doing it.”
A massive air and sea search is underway for the plane which disappeared after taking off from the Southport Flying Club about 10am Wednesday for what was supposed to be a 30-minute scenic flight.
The aircraft was not reported missing until early Wednesday afternoon and part of the propeller was located off South Stradbroke about 5.30pm. The search resumed at first light this morning.
Part of the fuselage was found washed up on the northern end of South Stradbroke Island this morning.
Gold Coast Water police officer-in-charge Senior Sergeant Jay Notaro said the search was ongoing and ‘there is still hope’.
Police sources said they are investigating whether the aircraft went down at the split between North and South Stradbroke islands near Jumpinpin Bar.
The plane is the same type as one that plunged into the ocean in the same area 11 years ago, killing the pilot and passenger.
Experienced pilot Barry Hempel and his passenger, Ian Lovell, died when the Soviet-made Yak-52 they were flying in crashed into the ocean off South Stradbroke Island in August 2008.
A coronial inquest found Mr Hempel had a history of flouting flying regulations as well as a history of seizures and was not authorised to fly paying passengers.
But Kim Rolph-Smith, of Brisbane joy flight company Warbird Aviation, said the Yak-52 was an ‘extremely well-built and reliable’ aircraft with several located in southeast Queensland.
“They’re an excellent aeroplane - we’ve operated about for or five of them over the years,” he said.
“I don’t know of any history of structural failures with these aircraft.”
Senior Sergeant Jay Notaro - OIC Gold Coast Water Police: Search is on-going, many aerial and sea assets have been deployed. There is still hope and we are actively looking. Joint search involving a number of agencies.
— Queensland Police (@QldPolice) June 6, 2019
Mr Rolph-Smith said flying conditions on Wednesday were ideal and said finding a fisherman or beachcomber on South Stradbroke Island who may have seen the plane go down would be key to solving the mystery.
Mr Rolph-Smith, a former president of Warbirds Australia, said it was ‘alarming’’ that the plane involved in the suspected crash was not reported missing earlier.
“The length of time it took is quite ridiculous,” he said.
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