DFO plane crash: Witnesses describe fireball after light plane crashes at Essendon Fields
WITNESSES have described how a fireball erupted like ‘an atomic bomb’ after a plane crashed into the DFO shopping complex at Essendon Fields, killing five.
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WITNESSES have described seeing a fireball erupt after a light plane crashed into the DFO shopping complex at Essendon Fields.
Five people have perished, including the pilot and four golfers from the US on their way to King Island, halfway between Victoria and Tasmania.
Miraculously nobody in the carpark or working in the complex was hurt, with the shopping centre bordering the airport in Melbourne’s north yet to open for the day when the plane struck after engine trouble on takeoff.
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Good Guys employee Ash Mayer described the explosion after the crash as “like an atomic bomb”.
“We didn’t see the plane come down but we felt the explosion, we felt the shockwave from it,” Mr Mayer said.
“The first thing we thought was someone let off a bomb in one of the bins ... then one of the boys ran over and said it’s a plane, it’s a plane, a plane’s gone down.
“We got as close as we could, but the fireball that was there; there was nothing we could do. We couldn’t even get close to it.
“Just seeing the destruction as well; it’s taken off half the building ... then it dawns on you, people are in that plane.”
Mr Mayer said he and his colleagues felt helpless when the building burst into flames.
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Brenton Skinn, Operations manager of Short Stop Jet Charter, said the pilot was a ‘great guy’ and had worked in the area for a long time.
“I was outside, I saw the explosion, it was as big as anything I’ve ever seen,” he said.
“It seems as though he’s gotten 200-300ft in the air and had an engine or aircraft issue.
“I thought it may have been a gas explosion in the building.
“I can remember seeing that airplane taxi past but I didn’t remember it taking off.
“It’s a horrific accident.’’
A woman preparing to start work at a neighbouring furniture shop has described the moment she saw the plane in distress, seconds before the crash.
“I saw it fly across the top of me, and it was shaking on the way down” — witness Grace Martin
Grace Martin who works at the Nick Scali furniture shop said she was having a coffee before work when she saw the plane hovering low above the shopping precinct.
“I saw it fly across the top of me, and it was shaking on the way down,” Ms Martin said.
“It was a metre from the top of the roof, and that’s when I ran away, and heard the big crash and saw the flames.
“My heart almost jumped through my throat; it was pretty scary.”
Herald Sun reporter Mikey Cahill was looking out his bedroom window when he saw a huge red and yellow explosion he described as ‘a proper mushroom, like a mini Moruroa Atoll’.
“I whipped out my phone and started filming the black plume of smoke, it was streaming straight up,” he said.
“My wife thought our car had been smashed because I kept saying ‘Nasty, nasty, that’s awful. “Straight away I assumed it was Essendon Airport because all sorts of planes fly in low over the houses and land there.
“The choppers and fire engines started up a few minutes later. Immediately I could tell it was something horrific, the explosion would have gone 30 metres high and ballooned upwards in red and black.
“The heat looked incredibly intense. I tried to get close in a cab but the police were moving people on so I got some snaps from the side of the road. Everyone was just shaking their heads.”
ABC radio caller Jason was in a taxi when he looked out the window and saw what he thought was a twin-propeller plane.
“I saw this plane coming in really low and fast. It went just behind the barriers so I couldn’t see the impact but when it hit the building there was a massive fireball,” he told ABC 774.
“I could feel the heat through the window of the taxi, and then a wheel — it looked like a plane wheel — bounced on the road and hit the front of the taxi as we were driving along.
“We kept driving and there was big fireball behind us.”
Mum Natalie Davis witnessed the crash from the Bulla Rd bridge as she waited to turn onto the freeway.
“I was stopped three cars back at the traffic lights looking directly at the DFO,” she said.
“I saw the plane go past and I thought that’s a lot louder than it should be.
“A split second later I saw the explosion and realised it wasn’t landing.
“I saw it crash through the building and into the car park. It was an enormous fireball. The flames were coming under the metal fence on the side of the freeway.
“It definitely hit cars in the carpark. I could see six to eight cars from under the fence.
“It was billowing smoke that’s got the red flames in it, not just the black smoke.
“All the workmen from the site across the road ran over to try and help. When the lights turned green, all the cars wondered whether they should go or not.
“The sound of the explosion was not a boom but more of a crash, it wasn’t deafening.”
Natalie Galvin witnessed the crash as she dropped her children at school in Strathmore.
She told the Herald Sun that she saw a huge fireball then paper and debris flying up into the air.
“When my husband and I got to the top of Bulla Road we could see a section of DFO on fire and something had clearly exploded,” Ms Galvin said.
“I’m still shaking two hours later.
“I can only describe the scene (as) chaotic, lots of people in shock.”
LaManna Supermarket at Essendon Fields on the edge of the airport was open at the time of the crash, but store manager Patrick LaManna said he didn’t hear anything from inside the building.
His business is 2km from the incident as the crow flies, although he said it could have been a very different scenario.
“The plane was at the other end of the landing strip; it could have gone either direction, really,” he said.
Mr LaManna said he had taken a drive down to see what had happened.
“Probably the pilot will be one of the people that come here every day,” he said.
“Someone pointed out the smoke but we had no idea what it was.
“It looked like it was (about 100m away). The black smoke was pretty heavy and pretty high.”
- with Jack Paynter, Mikaela Day
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