Fatal Crash Palmers Island 29 December 2024

[kgwilson]

Sadly i have to report a fatal crash today at around 11:30am at Palmers Island near Yamba, Northern NSW. The pilot was a friend of mine and had his aircraft hangared at South Grafton. He was well known, well liked, very experienced. My sincere condolences to all of the family. There were a number of witnesses and we will know more in the days to come.

[pylon500]

I think that is Bearhawk...?

[Lucky01]

Condolences to the pilot, sad news.

[BrendAn]

Well known member of bush fliers down under Facebook group .

 

 

[JMLIS]

Long time friend, very sad.

[BrendAn]

I would have thought the son would have enough knowledge to take over if his dad had a problem. 

I guess they will find out more when he is out of surgery.

[kgwilson]

If there was a control system failure taking over from the rear seat would probably not have any effect. At 500 feet it is all over in a few seconds. Reaction time to an unexpected event is about 3-4 seconds so if this was the case it would be too late.

[onetrack]

Wouldn't there be an autopsy to determine if a medical event preceded the crash? Who makes a decision as to whether an autopsy is carried out? Isn't it the Coroner? - and how does he go about deciding if an autopsy is warranted or not?

[kgwilson]

I imagine that there will be a post mortem, however without any crash investigation results are not likely to be made public.

[Admin]

I have been asked to delete this thread BUT the thread contains important discussion that could help ALL pilots so IT WILL NOT BE DELETED. Some posts have been removed and others edited so there is no finger pointing, no stating of anything as being factual to the cause of the accident. Factual information as to the cause of the accident will be released in due course after a formal investigation takes place

 

I and I am sure every single other pilot on this site is in grief for the pilot's family and friends but if we can not discuss things openly with consideration to the family and friends then accidents will keep happening and more pilots will die.

 

There are site rules in reference to discussing accidents HERE and as long as we follow them then this site is a learning resource FOR EVERY PILOT!!!