UPDATE: 4:30pm
It has been confirmed there are no survivors from Monday’s crash of a Dragon bi-plane which had six people on board.
About 1:50pm this afternoon, searchers from the air spotted a piece of red or crimson wreckage through the trees, and on closer inspection they identified the aircraft’s “VH” registration on the side.
The “high-impact” crash site is located 14km to the north-west of Borumba Dam wall.
“The plane is not in a condition that you would recognise it as a plane, so they have hit the ground exceedingly hard and the aircraft is fundamentally destroyed,” Australian Maritime Safety Authority spokesman Mike Barton said this afternoon.
Mr Barton could not comment on the cause of the crash.
“We can’t rule out anything and that now becomes a job for the Air Transport Safety Bureau and they’ll be looking at bringing their investigators up as part of a two-pronged investigation. (There will be) the aviation accident investigation and police will also be assisting the Coroner in the coronial investigation,” Mr Barton said.
“I personally knew the pilot. He had a very wide group of friends and I think the antique aeroplane community are going to be quite upset for a while that they’ve lost him and certainly the friends and relations of the other occupants as well.”
Queensland Police are on the scene and are continuing further investigations.
AGL Action Rescue Helicopter CEO David Donaldson said an AGL helicopter landed about 200m from the crash site and the crew – including medical staff – walked through the bush to the site.
“One of our rescue helicopters was immediately on scene there to try and confirm what was actually sited on the ground. From there, it’s been a case of putting people on the ground,” he said.
“Of course, the immediate concern was to see if there was anyone there who needed medical assistance.”
The air search resumed at 7:00am this morning with 30 pilots, crew and flight paramedics briefed on the slightly expanded search area.
Sixteen aircraft worked a search grid in an attempt to locate the plane. The crash site is within the original search zone.
The 2040sq km search zone extended north to Widgee Mountain, east to Kenilworth, south to Kilcoy and west over the Brisbane Range.
It was divided into 66 5×5 sq km squares with each aircraft allocated four squares to search.
A command centre was set up at the Action Rescue Hangar and a staging area and re-fuelling point was established at Kenilworth Showgrounds.
Police also began a ground search near Borumba Dam and telecommunications technicians joined the hunt, trying to pinpoint the location of the last communications from any of the four mobile phones known to have been on board.
“On behalf of all Queenslanders, I wish to pass on my deepest sympathy to the families and friends of the six people who lost their lives in this tragic accident,” Mr Newman said.
The group of friends were returning to Caboolture after spending the day raising money for charity by conducting joy flights at the Monto Fly-In.
Mr Newman also thanked those involved in the search operation.
“I would like to acknowledge the people who worked tirelessly over the last couple of days in the search operation,” Mr Newman said.
“Emergency services were joined in the search by a number of private aviation companies and local residents, who gave up their time to search for the plane.”
Video from today’s search near Borumba Dam:
[Video courtesy AGL Action Rescue Helicopter]
- 1:18pm – Pilot Des Porter reported to air traffic control that he had flown into cloud, did not know his location and was seeking help. Air Traffic Control (ATC) informed Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC). At this stage air traffic controllers were dealing with it as an inflight emergency. RCC advised ATC to tell the pilot to activate his distress beacon. Reason: to help identify his location, help other aircraft to locate him.
- 1:30pm – Pilot appears to have activated his beacon
- 1:35pm – RCC tasked AGL Action Rescue Helicopter (through ATC) to assist the pilot
- 1:40pm – Action Rescue Helicopter airborne and attempting radio contact with pilot
- 1:55pm – 5 scattered signals were picked up from the beacon (it was a non-GPS beacon and often the signals can be scattered)
- 2:03pm – Aircrewman Rick Harvey has last radio contact with aircraft
- 2:23pm – Beacon signal ceased
Related article: Police Release Names
