Lakeside near Bloomsbury - aircraft missing 2 April 2023

[FlyingVizsla]

Search underway in North Queensland for plane missing from Bloomsbury, near Mackay

www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-03/small-plane-missing-in-bloomsbury-near-mackay/102178366

The search is continuing for a light plane that took off from a North Queensland cattle station and failed to arrive at its destination.

The plane is believed to have two people on board and took off from Natal Downs Station, near Charters Towers, about 2pm on Sunday.

It was due to arrive at the Lakeside Airpark at Bloomsbury, north of Mackay at 5pm, with air traffic control raising the alarm at 6:30pm.

CQ Rescue was tasked to search the area last night, and despite several sweeps over the area, has found no sign of the plane.

This morning, a specialist aircraft from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) left Cairns and arrived in the Whitsundays about 7:30.

A spokesman said the search would be concentrated on an area west of Proserpine.

The Queensland Police Service said its officers were on stand-by but AMSA was coordinating search and rescue efforts. 

CQ Rescue has again joined the search with other aircraft likely to be called in later today.

 

I can see the AMSA Dornier circling an area of rough ground to the west of Bloomsbury at 9am today.

[kgwilson]

I hope that they managed to put down somewhere. This is why  carry a Spot Tracker with me. It provides a lat/long location via satellite every 5 minutes and allows me to send a message to predetermined email addresses if I have a forced landing & am OK as well as being a PLB to SOS emergency services if necessary.

[kgwilson]

What was the weather like in the area yesterday afternoon?

[FlyingVizsla]

Update - both deceased & named.  The article has just been updated with the news.  RIP

[Ironpot]

What was the weather like in the area yesterday afternoon?

 

IMC

 

Multiple SIGMETs out, Lightning, turbulence under 6000 ….

Edited April 4, 2023 by Ironpot

[facthunter]

Young couple. Very sad. Nev

[red750]

The pilot had no PPL or RPC. Read story here.

[turboplanner]

Yet there are still people out there who don't know what they don't know, but openly reject formal training and advocate flying without a licence.

[kgwilson]

This was reported in the other thread https://www.recreationalflying.com/forums/topic/38971-3rd-april-2023-proserpine-light-aircraft-crash/page/2/#comment-549735 where the ATSB has discontinued it's investigation. It just shows there are still idiots prepared to do their own thing rather than follow established rules and procedures. The sad part is he took out his pregnant wife due to this attitude.

[planedriver]

That's a very sad way to learn what you should have already known.

You can't help but wonder how others may feel now, who may have known of the lack of qualifications, but said nothing.

[facthunter]

It's the Unwitting pax that you feel sorry for. There used to be an old test  if you checked someone out.. "Would you be happy if your wife and kids went with him"?  Nev

[planedriver]

Going back a good few years I was chatting to a pilot at a Narrowmine event who said he was bought up in the country and as a kid always helped his grandfather with his Tiger Moth. 

From the age of about 14 he used to fly it a lot in the country with grandad, and also a lot on his own unlicenced, untill someone suggested that he HAD to get a licence. Apparently he used to fly the Tiger Moth to XXX airport for his instruction so he could come clean. Which apparently he eventually did.

That pilot is well known by many but no longer with us sadly, as he had an EFTO in The Blue Mountains, but had plent of hours up and was lovely bloke to talk to.

You would think that it couldn't happen if you are living out in Whoop Whoop unnoticed, but this story seems that it can.

[old man emu]

I'm going to throw in a pot-stirrer here.

 

An incident like this doesn't augur well for the introduction of something like Part 103.

[facthunter]

One wouldn't have been there. They are not a X country thing taking passengers.   Nev

[old man emu]

42 minutes ago, facthunter said:

One wouldn't have been there. They are not a X country thing taking passengers.   Nev

Stop using Common Sense. You know that. I know that. We all know that. But the Regulators would ignore that.

[turboplanner]

2 hours ago, old man emu said:

I'm going to throw in a pot-stirrer here.

 

An incident like this doesn't augur well for the introduction of something like Part 103.

That was just someone pot stirring given that we have 95.10

 

We certainly have had weather related/nav related deaths in RA and a few come to mind, one who boasted of flying on instruments self-taught and killed himself by flying into a hill in cloud, one who didn’t bother with a formal aviation MET report, and was killed when his plane broke up in a cell, one trike flier confident in his self taught Night VFR skills who hit a windmill while low flying at night and killed himself and his wife.

 

[RossK]

14 minutes ago, turboplanner said:

 

 

.......one who boasted of flying on instruments self-taught and killed himself by flying into a hill in cloud, one who didn’t bother with a formal aviation MET report, and was killed when his plane broke up in a cell, one trike flier confident in his self taught Night VFR skills who hit a windmill while low flying at night and killed himself and his wife.

 

Seems to be a pattern here 🤔

[turboplanner]

1 minute ago, RossK said:

Seems to be a pattern here 🤔

The old Aviation Safety Digest used to run a special on this type of accident every year around May, and there was certainly a pattern, in fact several patterns, but the most common was the person who had got into cloud, managed to hold the aircraft upright, so became confident enough to try it again and bingo!

 

ATSB would have a lot of cases worth studying.

[Old Koreelah]

3 hours ago, turboplanner said:

…most common was the person who had got into cloud, managed to hold the aircraft upright, so became confident enough to try it again and bingo!

Perhaps the regulators should focus on personality disorders.

[facthunter]

You'd wipe out most of the management, straight away.   Nev

[turboplanner]

1 hour ago, Old Koreelah said:

Perhaps the regulators should focus on personality disorders.

Personality disorders always play a part in safety, but these weather cases just seemed to be either no weather training or over-confidence.

[spenaroo]

it always amazes me the confidence these guys have.
no way would I think I could do a cross country trip at 30 hours....

let alone with a passenger - I still dont want to take anyone up with me

but then I did do some navigation challenges with an instructor - despite not having any prior training with navigation.
was a fun experience and taught me how much I don't know.

If id just been solo in the circuit I might have thought I was pretty much there.... I don't think there is enough weight on the difference between first solo, and area solo.
one is your okay to not kill yourself getting airborne. the other is that you are competent to be airborne

maybe it should be encouraged that we have humbling experiences, not just confidence building while training.

Edited July 6, 2023 by spenaroo

[turboplanner]

38 minutes ago, spenaroo said:

it always amazes me the confidence these guys have.
no way would I think I could do a cross country trip at 30 hours....

let alone with a passenger - I still dont want to take anyone up with me

but then I did do some navigation challenges with an instructor - despite not having any prior training with navigation.
was a fun experience and taught me how much I don't know.

If id just been solo in the circuit I might have thought I was pretty much there.... I don't think there is enough weight on the difference between first solo, and area solo.
one is your okay to not kill yourself getting airborne. the other is that you are competent to be airborne

maybe it should be encouraged that we have humbling experiences, not just confidence building while training.

Yes, it's really the next step after learning how to control the aircraft and use the radio. With your confidence level OK on that, it's a new world flight planning with Performance and operations, Nav, Met.

 

I remember an early Nav solo, arriving at Albury and seeing the ground too close and trying to work out why.

[RossK]

First Nav, my instructor had my first landing at a short grass strip, 650m. Should be doable, right?

This strip wasn't suitable for a first time away from home, new Nav pilot, with trees, powelines and fences.

What he was looking for was for students to say "Nope, not for me, off to the alternate", which I did after 1 low pass and 1 attempt at a landing.

[facthunter]

Expensive way of making a point. Not too valid since he decided it in the first place and you might have made more enquiries and ruled it out in the first place. Also It may only be valid once as the "word" gets around as it does in these things. . I'm a bit wary of setting up these Tests for students as it doesn't really tell you how the student will behave if you're not there. He/She might think Gee this is a bit much but HE must think I'm up to it so that's a pat on my back and press on where you wouldn't have normally   There's also the expectation that he'll take over IF needed.  Nev

Edited July 6, 2023 by facthunter
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