[Peetwo]

Update: Via the ABC News:

Family of young pilot killed in Darwin plane crash 'absolutely heartbroken'
By Dijana Damjanovic and Neda Vanovac

Updated yesterday at 9:05pmTue 24 Oct 2017, 9:05pm

Video: Fatal plane crash near Darwin (ABC News)
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The family of a young pilot killed in a light plane crash on the outskirts of Darwin yesterday has spoken about the "emptiness" they feel about losing him.

Philip McCarter said his son Darcy, 23, was working as a pilot in the Top End and was on board with a second pilot, aged 33 and also from Queensland, when the Cessna 210 crashed shortly after taking off from Darwin on Monday afternoon.


Photo: The family of pilot Darcy McCarter have spoken of their heartbreak following his death.

"Many of you will already know, but we lost out beautiful boy Darcy yesterday," Mr McCarter said.

"He was flying out of Darwin to Elcho Island, where he was based as a pilot serving the local community.

"As you can imagine we are all absolutely heartbroken and cannot believe this has happened. We have lost our darling boy and brother to Ella. We can't imagine our lives without him and love him with all our hearts.

"We love you. I am empty."

The plane was also carrying the body of a deceased Yolngu man, who the ABC understands was being taken back to Elcho Island, off the coast of East Arnhem Land, for a traditional funeral.

Aboriginal model Magnolia Maymuru also paid tribute to Mr McCarter on Tuesday.

"This pilot has flown my family and I multiple times from Gove to Elcho and has always worked with a good heart and always respectful towards a lot of Yolngu people from West and East of Arnhem Land," she posted on Facebook.

"Please pray for his family."

Photo: The Cessna 210 in 2009 at Parafield Airport in South Australia. (Supplied: George Canciani)

There was an outpouring of grief and support on Mr McCarter's Facebook page in memory of his son.

"[As] one of the many pilots who operate in the NT out of Darwin, I pass on our sincere condolences. Every day these young pilots fly countless hours in the hope to one day be in the left-hand seat with an airline or similar," wrote Duncan Terry.

"We were devastated to hear of incident and loss of Darcy."

Chris van Elsen remembered Darcy as "an impressive young guy who always seemed to have a smile on his face and he made a point of saying hello every time he saw you", while Clare Dal Bon said he had "the kindest heart and his happiness was infectious".

'We desperately want to know what happened'

Photo: Members of the community have started to lay flowers at the crash scene. (ABC News: Nancy Notzon)

Air Frontier owner Geoff Hunt said everyone connected with the business was "absolutely shocked by this tragedy" and that with the loss of "two highly regarded colleagues", aero operations had been immediately suspended.

"We are deeply saddened by yesterday's tragic event, with the loss of two precious lives," he said in a statement on Tuesday evening.

"Everyone connected with Air Frontier is absolutely devastated by what has happened and our hearts and love go to the families of our two pilots."

He said Air Frontier had been in contact with the families to offered them support.

"They were experienced, professional pilots and delightful young men I am proud to call colleagues," he said.

"The aircraft was carrying the remains of a respected Yolngu man to his ancestral burial place. We express our deepest apologies and heartfelt sympathies to the man's relatives for the additional grief this has created."

Photo: The wing of the crashed Cessna 210 is visible through trees alongside Gunn Point Road. (ABC News: Ian Redfearn)

Air Frontier was doing everything it could to assist the multiple investigations underway, Mr Hunt said.

"These investigations will take some time to provide the answers to what occurred and we will do everything possible to obtain those answers," he said.

"We know this will not ease the loss but we desperately want to know what happened to our colleagues and the aircraft involved."

He apologised to passengers and customers for any inconvenience that the suspension of operations caused, but said that "in light of what happened it was the only decision we could take".

Pending confirmation from Air Frontier's pilots that they are fit and able to resume flying, he said it planned to resume flights on Thursday.

Investigators at scene for rest of week

Photo: Police at the scene of the fatal plane crash in the Northern Territory. (ABC News: Ian Redfearn)

The Cessna 210, operated by local charter company Air Frontier, took off at 1:30pm and crashed shortly afterwards near Howard Springs, about 25 kilometres south of Darwin's CBD.

NT Police will conduct an investigation on behalf of the coroner, and investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) have flown from Canberra to Darwin.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigators are expected to be on site for at least the rest of this week and at this stage they are not aware of any adverse circumstances.

"We will take the information to try and find out what happened and then try and find ways to reduce the risk of something like this happening again," ATSB representative Nat Nagy said.

"We understand that police are speaking to a number of witnesses already."

Lighter aircraft like the Cessna 210 are not required to have black boxes or flight recorders on board.

The ATSB is looking to see if it can use GPS data or other electronic information to piece together the plane's final moments before the crash.

"We have specialist engineers who are able to gather data from those to try and work out exactly what happened," Mr Nagy said.

A preliminary factual report is expected to be published in around 30 days and it will take 12 months to fully analyse data and bring in recommendations.

Also via the ABC, another C210 fatal accident in SW WA:

Pilot dead near Albany after plane crashes in dense, inaccessible bushland
By Nicolas Perpitch

Updated yesterday at 8:42pm Tue 24 Oct 2017, 8:42pm


Photo: Police are working to access the crash site in a national park. (ABC News: Ben Gubana)

A man has died after a light plane crashed in a national park near Albany on Western Australia's south coast.

WA Police Superintendent Dom Wood said the Cessna 210 aircraft had gone down in dense bushland in the Mount Lindesay National Park, in an area locally known as the Sheepwash Nature Reserve.

The pilot who died is a 41-year-old Albany local who owned the plane.

"The difficulty is from the ground getting to the scene because it is quite a dense area of bush," he told ABC Great Southern this afternoon.

"There is still smoke, potentially fire risk as well."

He said he rescuers had to walk several kilometres from the closest road to the scene.

Photo: The rough area of the suspected crash site in Mount Lindesay National Park. (Google Maps)

Witnesses heard an explosion

A local dairy farmer who spoke to the ABC said he called in the suspected crash after a worker on his farm saw what he thought was a light plane go down in nearby forest.
The farmer, Pieter Mostert, who is also the fire control officer for the Redmond fire brigade, said he heard a plane go over his property on the outskirts of Redmond, about 400 kilometres south-east of Perth, about 11:00am.

One of his workers saw it go into the north-east corner of Mount Lindesay National Park, he said.

"My wife heard the explosion from up [at] the house, which is 700 metres up from the dairy," he said.

"My co-worker had full sight of it."

Mr Mostert said the terrain where the plane is thought to have gone down was steep and heavily forested.

"I believe they may be hampered with the access to get into the site, and it also could be difficult because [of] the communications in our area," he said.

RIP -