Tragic end to ‘once in a lifetime’ golf trip
AUSTRALIA: The family of one of four American golfers killed in a fiery plane crash in Melbourne yesterday say he died on the trip of a lifetime.
Greg Reynolds De Haven and Russell Munsch, from Texas, were named by their families on social media as two of the five men killed in the crash in Essendon.
De Haven’s sister Denelle Wicht posted: ‘‘Dear friends and family, my handsome athletic big brother was killed today in a plane accident while on his ‘once in a lifetime’ trip to Australia. It was a charter flight with 2 of his friends flying to another island to play golf.’’
Munsch was identified in post by his cousin Carol Holst.
Catastrophic engine failure just after takeoff may have caused the plane to crash into a shopping centre and explode, police believe.
The Beechcraft Super King Air twin-engined plane hit DFO Essendon after departing nearby Essendon Airport for King Island.
Police said the pilot, Max Quartermain, 63, made two mayday calls before impact. a
Workers at the shopping centre ran for their lives as the plane crashed and exploded in a ball of flames. Miraculously, people inside the centre escaped injury.
More than 60 firefighters battled for over 90 minutes to control the blaze. Plane debris littered the ground and a nearby freeway.
Thick black smoke from the crash could be seen across Melbourne.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said it was ’’the worst civil aviation accident that our state has seen for 30 years’’.
Staff from a Spotlight store, which took the brunt of the explosion, were in tears and visibly shaken as they spoke to police outside the centre.
A group of 10 workers was standing outside the centre in their work aprons, holding their faces in their hands as paramedics assessed them.
The centre was evacuated, with workers milling around with dazed looks on their faces.
They were among dozens who witnessed the crash or its fiery aftermath.
Grace Martin, 28, a worker from furniture store Nick Scali, said she was starting the day with a quiet coffee outside when the shuddering plane flew above her head.
‘‘If it had been a metre lower, I wouldn’t be here, to be honest.
‘‘It flew over the top of me and it was shaking on the way down and a metre from the top of the roof.
‘‘That’s when I ran away and heard the big crash and saw all the flames.’’
Ash Mayer, a storeman at The Good Guys, said he felt the crash reverberate through the building.
‘‘We were just coming off the off-ramp, we felt just everything shake and a massive explosion and a fireball go up.
‘‘We just knew this was bad and there was nothing we could do.
‘‘One of the boys actually saw it go down, and he’s now left because he can’t deal with it.’’
A radio caller named Jason said he was in a taxi when he saw the massive fireball.
‘‘I could feel the heat through the window of the taxi, and then a wheel - it looked like a plane wheel - bounced on the road and hit the front of the taxi as we were driving along,’’ he told the ABC.
The nearby Tullamarine and Calder freeways were closed and a large exclusion zone was set up around the centre.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has taken over responsibility for the crash investigation. - AAP, Fairfax