Two injured after plane crash near Stawell

A PILOT critically injured in a light plane crash in Victoria’s west remained in The Alfred hospital on Saturday night.

Police at the light plane crash site near Stawell in Western Victoria. Picture: Channel 7

A PILOT critically injured in a light plane crash in Victoria’s west remained in The Alfred hospital on Saturday night.

Trainee pilots Tarek Mohamed, 28, and Michael Hawthorne, 40, suffered life-threatening injuries when the single-engine aircraft they were in crashed into a field at Black Range near Stawell on Friday.

Mr Hawthorne, from Altona Meadows, remained in a stable condition at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

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The plane near Stawell in Western Victoria. Picture: Channel 7

But Mr Mohamed, from Sydney, was critically injured in the crash.

The fixed-wing aircraft was understood to be registered to flight school Soar Aviation.

In a statement, Soar Aviation said: “The incident that occurred at Stawell has activated a comprehensive emergency response, which involves grounding all our fleet across all bases.

“Soar Aviation and emergency response teams have incident response management and procedures in place in the event of an incident of this nature. Soar Aviation’s priority is the safety and security of our employees, students, visitors, and those involved in the incident.”

Victoria Police said the Australian Transport Safety Bureau was notified of the incident and the cause was being investigated.