Pilot and trainee lose lives in tragic Beaudesert crash
HIS flying school’s motto was “amor vitae volans”, which is Latin for “love life fly”.
But yesterday, Brisbane flying instructor Matthew Furlong and a student pilot from Hong Kong tragically lost their lives in a plane crash between the capital and the Gold Coast.
Mr Furlong, 31, and his trainee, 25, are believed to have died instantly when their light plane spiralled into a turf farm at Allenview, near Beaudesert.
The Diamond DA40 Star had taken off from Archerfield Airport at 9am but smashed into a turf paddock about 40 minutes into what was to have been a 90-minute training flight, breaking apart on impact and sending debris flying.
Two female turf farm workers raised the alarm after the aircraft nosedived into the grass about 400m from where they were spotting weeds.
Witness Peter McKenna, who owns a horse agistment property next to the turf farm, said he was on the phone “at exactly 9.43am” when he saw the plane in an “out-of-control spiral” moments before it slammed into the paddock.
“It was a terrible thing to see,” he said.
“I unfortunately watched as this plane went into a spiral and crashed into the ground and broke apart. It was fairly obvious there wasn’t going to be any survivors.”
Mr McKenna said he raced down to the crash scene about a kilometre from his property and turf farm workers were already rushing in with a fire extinguisher.
Mr Furlong was an instructor with the Flylink Aviation College, which specialised in training Chinese student pilots.