Mid-air crash of light planes leaves four dead
FOUR people are dead after two light planes, one of them a training flight, crashed mid-air near a regional Victorian airport.
Emergency services were called to two separate crash scenes near Mangalore Airport about 11.30am yesterday.
Police believe the two aircraft collided mid-air before crashing to the ground and the four people would have died immediately.
“One plane almost certainly crashed immediately and the other plane crashed about two kilometres north from here and both were extensively damaged prior to colliding with the ground,” Mitchell Local Area Commander Inspector Peter Koger said.
All four people are yet to be formally identified.
Insp Koger said there were witnesses to the planes colliding and one of the aircraft coming down.
“There were some people in the paddocks at the back of this facility and there was also a helicopter in the air and we’re working with them to get witness statements,” he said.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority said one of the planes was a Piper Seminole twin engine registered to Moorabbin Aviation Services on a training flight and the second was a privately-owned Beechcraft Travel Air D95A. The second plane was being operated by the Peninsula Aero Club at Tyabb as a training flight, with an instructor and student.
The planes were not incinerated but have hit the ground hard, Insp Koger said.
CASA will investigate, as will the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
“The investigators that are deploying to the accident site have experience in human factors, aircraft operations and maintenance,” ATSB Transport Safety executive director Nat Nagy said.