Four dead in plane tragedy
A FAMILY joy ride ended in horror after two men and two children died in a plane crash in Redcliffe.
Police understand a light aircraft took off from Redcliffe on a prearranged joy flight on Sunday morning before it disappeared behind mangroves.
Another aircraft later saw the plane in shallow waters.
Police said the 69-year-old pilot was from Brisbane, but they did not yet know where the other passengers were from – including two children who are “younger than teenagers”.
The identity of the three passengers is unknown and it is unclear if they were all related.
Police Inspector Craig White said the pilot’s family were at the aerodrome at the time of the incident.
“The family are deeply traumatised as you can expect,” Inspector White said. “It’s a tragic accident, we’ve briefly mentioned before, that it’s the lead-up to Christmas and it’s the last thing that any family needs to go through at any time.”
The police are working alongside the Australian Transport Safety Bureau to find out why the single-engine plane crashed.
Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said a preliminary report would be released in the next six to eight weeks.
“Early reports are it looks as though it was not long after take off (that it crashed),” Mr Mitchell said.
Mr Mitchell asked anyone with information about the crash to contact them.
The ATSB has deployed a team to visit the scene of the crash and investigate the circumstances of why the plane’s flight ended in tragedy. Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said that emergency services had faced difficulties in reaching the site where the plane’s wreckage was found upside down.
“The plane is in a very difficult position … in the wetland area,” she said.