Pilot should never have held licence, coroner says

An inexperienced pilot who crashed while flying over mountainous terrain in bad weather did not have proper training or experience and should not have been given a pilot’s licence, a coroner has found.

Mathew Farrell and his fiancee Karen Waller. Mr Farrell was killed in a solo plane crash in Victoria's high country in September 2022. Picture: Supplied

An inexperienced but overconfident ultralight pilot who crashed while flying over mountainous terrain in bad weather did not have proper training or experience and should not have been given a pilot’s licence, a coroner has found.

Former Mercury photographer Mathew Farrell, 42, was attempting to fly a Jabiru J230-C light sports aeroplane from Mt Beauty in Victoria to Wollongong in NSW on September 18, 2022.

Pilot, cameraman and photographer Mathew Farrell, 42, died in a plane crash near Tallangatta in Victoria's high country. Picture: Supplied

An inquest conducted by Victorian Coroner Paul Lawrie found Mr Farrell should not have been given a pilot’s licence given his limited relevant experience and Recreational Aviation Australia had failed to disclose important documents to the court.

He said Mr Farrell chose a direct route over mountainous terrain rather than a longer route over flatter country and crashed near Lucyvale about 40 minutes into the two-hour flight.

Aviation expert Captain Paul McKeown said the route “represented an extremely complex and challenging scenario for any aircraft”.

“The combination of reduced visibility, icing and mountainous terrain, where weather

deteriorates rapidly, made this a hazardous undertaking,” he told the inquest.

Based on the available evidence, it appeared Mr Farrell had lost control of the aircraft while disoriented in cloud as ice built up on the airframe and propeller.

Former Mercury photographer Mathew Farrell. Photo: The Karakoram Anomaly Project / Facebook

The coroner noted the ultralight pilot had 250 hours of paragliding experience and about 15 hours in fixed-wing aircraft — 3.6 hours of which was solo.

The coroner said Mr Farrell’s prior paragliding experience should not have been counted as relevant flight time and he accepted evidence that Mr Farrell’s RAAus training was “rushed and ineffective”.

“It simply beggars belief that a student pilot new to three-axis powered aeroplanes, however talented they may be, could be trained effectively to certificate standard in all the above aspects of flying in one day,” the findings noted.

“Mr Farrell’s cross-country and passenger endorsements were improperly issued – he did

not qualify for either.

“I am satisfied that the improper issue of these three endorsements is indicative of RAAus

failing to apply any process approaching sufficient robustness to confirm Mr Farrell’s

eligibility for the endorsements.”

The coroner made a number of recommendations for safety improvements and referred the actions of RAAus to the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions.

“The conduct of RAAus in the inquest provides a striking demonstration of the reasons why a regulator should not also be an investigator of its own matters, or the principal entity providing investigative assistance to a coronial investigation,” he said.

Mathew Farrell and his fiancee Karen Waller. Mr Farrell was killed in a solo plane crash in Victoria's high country in September 2022. Picture: Supplied

Mathew’s partner Karen Waller and his legal team welcomed the findings.

“The inquest’s findings have confirmed our concerns from the beginning, that Mathew’s paragliding experience should not have been regarded as recognised flight time and he should not have been issued a Recreational Pilot Certificate via the converting pilot pathway,” they said in a statement.

“The Coroner has found that the conduct of RAAus is wholly at odds with an organisation that has traditionally been actively involved in investigations of this type and assisting the Court and Victoria Police.

“It is alarming to hear the Coroner conclude that RAAus had engaged in a deliberate strategy to hide key documents from the Court in relation to an investigation into the death of one of their own members.

In his evidence to the inquest, Captain McKeown said it would never be known why Mr Farrell decided to set out on the day he died.

“By all accounts, Mr Farrell was an adventurous person, he was an intelligent person, he was an educated man,” he said.

“It’s inconceivable that he hadn’t made safety-related risk assessments before.

“He was an Antarctic explorer, a climbing guide … we can never really get to the final answer I don’t think.”

Originally published as Pilot should never have held licence, coroner says