Emergency crews investigate aircraft crash at Finch Hatton

A husband and wife from regional Qld have died after their light plane crashed into the side of a mountain, as police begin the harrowing and complex task of retrieving the wreckage. UPDATES.

Mackay’s Forensic Crash Unit was investigating the incident and will prepare a report for the coroner while liaising with the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau.

A Walkerston husband and wife have been identified as the two people who died after their light plane crashed into the side of a mountain in the Pioneer Valley, as police begin the harrowing and complex task of retrieving the wreckage.

The 73-year-old pilot and his wife, 75, who were parents and grandparents, had left Townsville early Saturday morning, October 28 and were expected to land at Palmyra airstrip at 8.15am.

Mackay Whitsunday Detective Inspector Emma Novosel said a member of the community who lived in the Finch Hatton area had heard a light aircraft flying overhead “and suddenly a distant noise”.

She said when the community member no longer heard the plane he phoned triple-0 just before 9am prompting an aerial and land search for the possible crash site.

A further call came when the couple did not reach Palmyra at the expected time.

The RACQ CQ Rescue chopper was deployed as part of the search around the Finch Hatton and Eungella area heading to where the plane was last seen on flight radar, about five km north of Netherdale.

The RACQ CQ Rescue chopper was deployed as part of the search around the Finch Hatton and Eungella following reports of an aircraft crash. Picture: RACQ CQ Rescue

As of 11.30am the chopper crew had located a crash site in a “mountainous, inaccessible area” north of Okuloo and Netherdale

Inspector Novosel said the chopper was able to return to the site about 3pm Saturday and winch a search member to the ground and it was identified the area “was the crash site of the overdue aircraft”.

“It’s been determined as a result of that initial search that the crash was an unsurvivable incident,” she said.

The RACQ CQ Rescue chopper is hovering over a section of mountainous area between Finch Hatton and Eungella. Picture: from flightrader24

“The terrain in that location is extremely difficult, it’s very steep and heavily timbered and there’s significant debris at and around the immediate location.”

Inspector Novosel said Disaster Victims Identification Specialist officers would be flying to Mackay from Brisbane to help with the recovery efforts, which she confirmed would be extremely difficult.

“Weather conditions permitting … we envisage that that will be able to commence on Tuesday,” she said.

Smoke rising from the thick tree coverage of a mountain range north of Okuloo and Netherdale where it is understood a plane crashed on Saturday, October 28, 2023. Picture: RACQ CQ Rescue

The crash site was inaccessible by road or foot and as a result those involved will need to be winched into the area.

“It’s going to be a complex recovery exercise, (we’re) only look at getting people into the site who have to be there,” Inspector Novosel said.

“The terrain is unsteady made more difficult now by the crash debris.

“I understand it is very difficult to even walk a short distance.”

Inspector Novosel said the plane was understood to be a Socata Trinidad aircraft and the 73-year-old man was a “very experienced pilot” with more than 30 years flying.

Mackay Whitsunday Detective Inspector Emma Novosel. Picture: Janessa Ekert

“He was familiar with the airstrip at Palmyra … and he has travelled from that airstrip to the Townsville area many times over the past 10 years,” she said.

The plane had been owned and operated by the couple, who had been visiting family in the Townsville area.

Mackay’s Forensic Crash Unit was investigating the incident and will prepare a report for the coroner while liaising with the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau.

Smoke rising from the thick tree coverage of a mountain range north of Okuloo and Netherdale where it is understood a plane crashed on Saturday, October 28, 2023. Picture: RACQ CQ Rescue

An ATSB spokesman has confirmed it is investigating the incident and is “currently gathering further information”.

Transport safety investigators from the ATSB’s Brisbane office with experience in aircraft operations and maintenance are travelling to the area on Sunday as part of the evidence collection phase of the investigation.

The investigators will collect and examine relevant evidence including analysing imagery from the accident site, interviewing involved parties, reviewing relevant weather data, obtaining pilot and aircraft maintenance records, and downloading any flight tracking data.

The ATSB asks anyone who may have witnessed or heard the aircraft in any phase of its flight to make contact via the witness form on our website: atsb.gov.au/witness at their earliest opportunity.

It is expected a preliminary report, which will detail factual information established during the investigation’s initial evidence collection phase, will be published in about six to eight weeks.

The ATSB will then publish a final report, detailing contributing factors and any identified safety issues, at the conclusion of the investigation.

Originally published as Emergency crews investigate aircraft crash at Finch Hatton