Fatal crash pilots lacked wet season experience ATSB report finds

TWO pilots killed in a light air craft crash in Howard Springs lacked Northern Territory wet season experience an Australian Transport Safety Bureau report has concluded.

Debris from the Northern Territory plane crash. Picture: Supplied

TWO pilots killed in a light air craft crash in Howard Springs lacked Northern Territory wet season experience according to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

Brisbane pilot Darcy McCarter, 23, and his co-pilot Daniel Burrill, 33, were killed when their Air Frontier Cessna 210 ran into trouble during a flight from Darwin to Elcho Island shortly after takeoff on October 23, 2017.

The plane lost its wings, ripped through bushland and crashed near a rural road 30km from the airport in Howard Springs.

The pilots were fatally injured and the aircraft destroyed.

Darcy McCarter died in the light air craft crash in Howard Springs.

A final report on the crash released by ATSB today, said shortly after the plane departed at 1.07pm, they had diverted to avoid adverse weather but at 1.32pm the aircraft entered an uncontrolled descent before it crashed landed.

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“The aircraft entered an area of strong convective activity and rapidly developing precipitating cells, which resulted in it experiencing severe turbulence and possibly reduced visibility for the pilots,” the report said.

“While flying in these conditions, a combination of airspeed, turbulence and control inputs probably led to excessive loading on the aircraft’s wings, which separated from the fuselage in-flight before it collided with terrain.”

Daniel Burrill also died in the crash.

The ATSB found that the pilots had no experience flying in the ‘build-up’ to the wet season in the Darwin area.

“Although pairing a supervisory pilot with a pilot new to the company was likely to reduce risk in other instances, in this case it did not adequately address the weather-related risks because neither pilot had experience flying in the region during the wet season,” the report said.