Two killed after aircraft collide in Kybong, Queensland

Two people are dead after two light aircraft collided mid-air at Kybong, near Gympie, north of Brisbane.

Emergency services rushed to the scene of a reported plane crash at Kybong, north of Brisbane.

Two people are dead after two light aircraft collided mid-air at Kybong, near Gympie, north of Brisbane.

The pilots of a glider and a recreational aircraft died in the collision just before 3pm on Wednesday. The impact resulted in two crash sites 200m apart in a paddock, with police describing the scene as traumatic.

“There are no winners here,” said Inspector Brad Inskip.

“We are working to confirm the identity of the victims and notify next of kin.”

A witness who lives on a neighbouring property told 7News he called triple-0 to alert authorities.

“We were sitting on the veranda having a cuppa when we heard a big bang,” he said.

“We thought that didn’t sound like a gunshot and we looked up and saw white bits of plane falling out of the sky.”

Shortly before the crash, the glider and a tug aircraft took off from Gympie Aerodrome at Kybong, the home of Sunshine Coast Gliding.

Gliding Australia vice-president Lindsay Mitchell said the other aircraft involved in the collision was not the tow plane.

“We all know it was a mid-air crash with an engine-powered aircraft, but we don’t know how it happened, we don’t know who was at fault,” Mr Mitchell told The Australian.

“Gliders are more easy to control than any other aircraft. People think because you haven’t got an engine you’re at the mercy of the wind but that’s not the case.”

He said the glider pilot was very experienced, and well known throughout the community, having flown for decades.

“Gliding is an inherently safe sport, with the last fatal glider crash in January 2018,” said Mr Mitchell.

“It’s not a sport you hear a lot about it because we have so few incidents. It’s just very, very rare.”

Weather conditions were expected to be looked at closely by investigators, but Mr Mitchell said wind did not “desperately affect gliders”.

“Clear visibility is important and it has been nice and clear. We won’t know what went wrong until investigators do their job,” he said.

Inspector Inskip appealed for witnesses to the crash to contact police.

With one aircraft licensed by Recreation Aviation Australia and the other registered with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, it was not immediately clear which body would investigate the incident.

Recreational Aviation Australia chair Michael Monke said it was appropriate that the Australian Transport Safety Bureau took the lead but he understood funding for such investigations was limited.

The ATSB was expected to make a statement about the investigation on Thursday.

Mid-air crashes are rare in Australia, with the last one occurring on February 19, 2020, at Mangalore north of Melbourne.

Four people were killed when a Beech Travel Air and Piper Seminole collided, as one descended and the other was climbing.

An Australian Transport Safety Bureau report found the pilots were unlikely to have seen each other before it was too late, and urged the use of automatic dependent surveillance broadcast avionics to help avoid similar disasters.