May 13, 2015
Brisbane couple Geoff and Julie Sheather had the fright of their lives on Wednesday when smoke started filling the cockpit of their two-seater Foxbat ultralight as they were at 6500 feet and heading for Kingaroy.
The couple had hired the plane for a day’s flying and took off from Caboolture in the morning for a trip to Biggenden, where they had morning tea.
Then they decided to visit Kingaroy for lunch on the way back.
But about 10 minutes out from Kingaroy Airport, smoke started coming from under Julie’s passenger seat and began to fill the cabin.
“I thought it must be an electrical fire so I immediately switched everything off,” pilot Geoff said.
The couple then spent an agonising four minutes waiting to see what would happen while the plane gradually descended to 3000 feet and Geoff began looking for a paddock to make an emergency landing.
But then the smoke stopped and the cabin cleared.
“That’s when I thought it was safe to turn things on again and try for an emergency landing at Kingaroy,” Geoff said.
“So I radioed in our situation and we flew into Kingaroy Airport.”
The couple were met by local police, ambulance and fire crews, who were waiting in the airport’s parking lot fearing the worst.
But as things turned out, Geoff and Julie were able to make a normal landing and emerged from the plane unscathed soon after it taxied to a halt near the airport terminal.
Firefighters inspected the plane in an effort to determine the cause of the fire.
They agreed the most likely cause was an electrical fault which had burned out a cable, but they were unable to determine exactly where the short had happened.
Later, Julie confided to southburnett.com.au that when her husband told her he had decided to take up flying 12 months ago, she insisted she’d never go up with him.
“I was scared of light aircraft,” she said.
“But Geoff did his training at Caboolture and they have top flight instructors there.
“So once he got his pilot’s licence I started joining him on trips. And until today it’s been a lot of fun.”
The couple has now contacted the plane’s owner to inform them of the incident, and will wait at the airport until an aircraft mechanic can check over the plane.
