Bribie Island plane crash: Richard Gardner identified as pilot killed in tragic crash

A 53-year-old man killed in a plane crash near Bribie Island is being remembered as a “nice man” who had been flying for “quite a while” before the tragic accident.

The pilot killed in a tragic accident near Bribie Island has been identified as 53-year-old Richard Gardner.

It’s believed a “catastrophic failure” mid-air triggered the light plane crash near Bribie Island on Wednesday.

The single-engine Acroduster aerobatic plane piloted by Mr Gardner crashed into mangroves alongside Pumicestone Passage.

Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson confirmed the plane had crashed just before 9.30am with witnesses reporting seeing the plane ‘fall from the sky’.

No one else was in the aircraft.

Caboolture Aero Club secretary Karen Strike, who also runs Strike Aviation Training at the Caboolture Airfield, confirmed the pilot was a member of the 300-strong club.

“I knew his plane so once I saw the picture on the internet, I knew,” Ms Strike said.

“The police came by to talk (to members of the club).

“He kept to himself pretty much … but every time I talked to him, he was quite nice.”

Mr Gardner, who hails from the United Kingdom, had been a member of the club for several years.

“He’s been flying here for quite a while,” she said.

“He had been at the club for four or five years … It’s just sad.

“We’re deeply saddened that we’ve lost a member and our thoughts go out to his family and friends.”

Police a believe a catastrophic failure in mid-air triggered a light plane crash near Bribie Island that killed a 53-year-old pilot on Wednesday. Picture: Patrick Woods.

It comes as the recovery of the doomed plane has been completed with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau set to investigate what caused the plane to come down.

Mike Clayton from Clayton’s Towing said the recovery effort took 5-6 hours.

“The limited access made it harder … it was very hard to walk out from the mainland because it was set out after the mangroves,” he said.

“And coming from the water there wasn’t much water being on the mudflat.

“When the tide came in we were able to get our boat in close enough with the crane jib and winched and lifted the plane into our boat.

“We had to pick up all the items that we could and we just transported the whole plane on our boat … it’s gone to our holding yard and ATSB is going to inspect the plane to look at what happened.”

Mr Clayton said while the recovery team was used to working in tricky conditions, the plane was very damaged.

“It was really badly destroyed, there was a lot of damage on it,” he said.

“It was a very high impact crash, there was no doubt about that when they were picking up the pieces.”