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Australian Plane crash cause still a mystery
THE pilot of a plane that crashed in far north Queensland gave no indication the aircraft was in trouble, Australia's air safety watchdog said today.Crash investigators would spend many weeks finding out what went wrong so the industry could learn from the tragedy, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) said. Attempts to reach the wreckage are continuing today, but all 15 people on board are believed to have died. "We really don't have any idea at all (about what went wrong) at this stage," CASA spokesman Peter Gibson told Sky News. "The Australian Transport Safety Bureau accident investigators ... will begin that task today of trying to work out what went wrong. "There was a standard broadcast about four or five minutes before the aircraft was due into Lockhart River ... that he (the pilot) was on approach into Lockhart River. "(There was) no indication anything went wrong at all, the site of the accident is directly on track into Lockhart River so what happened between that broadcast and the accident site is unknown at this stage." Ten male passengers and three female passengers - including a police officer - and two male crew were on board the routine domestic flight when it went down about noon (AEST) yesterday. The Aero-Tropics Air Services plane had left the small Aboriginal community of Bamaga, 40km from the tip of the peninsula, and had almost reached Lockhart River, just south of the Iron Range National Park, when it crashed. The pilot radioed air traffic control four minutes before the twin propeller plane was due to arrive at Lockhart River at 11.45am (AEST), and was preparing to land as scheduled. Posted by: Thineling Flomoper5900 2005-05-08 |
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