January 9, 2019
A 62-year-old West Australian man was lucky to escape with minor injuries after his light plane made a forced landing in bushland south-west of Mundubbera on Tuesday morning.
The incident occurred in the Auburn State Forest, north of Allies Creek.
The Bundaberg-based RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopter was despatched to the site about 9:30am after the pilot activated his EPIRB location beacon.
The Jabiru light aircraft, which was badly damaged in the crash, reportedly suffered an engine failure.
A QAS paramedic was winched down from the rescue chopper to attend to the pilot, who was the sole person on board.
After assessment, it was decided he could be taken to hospital by road ambulance.
RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopter pilot Peter Marris said the man was very lucky to have walked away alive from the crash.
“One of the plane’s wings was completely torn off … it’s amazing that he wasn’t more badly injured,” he said.
