Tourists die in Aus plane crash
2007-11-11 12:04
Sydney - Australian air safety officials Sunday were examining the wreck of a light plane in which three German tourists died when the pilot snagged a power line while attempting an emergency landing.
They said the pilot, one of the three German nationals aboard a Cessna 172, crashed after hitting a power line hanging across the Stuart Highway 700km south of Darwin.
The single-engined plane was in a convoy of three chartered aircraft flying between the Northern Territory town of Katherine and Kings Creek Station, 200km from Alice Springs.
The aircraft came down midday Saturday 20km from the village of Elliot, which lost its electricity supply because of the accident.
"It looked like the power line went straight through the plane," an Elliot resident at the crash scene told the Northern Territory News. "One policeman said to me: 'you don't want to see this' because the bodies were still inside. But the crash was right on the highway and there was stuff from the plane all over the road."
The other two planes in the convoy, which also carried German tourists, landed at Tennant Creek. The group has been interviewed by police.
Another Elliot local at the scene told national broadcaster ABC that the plane looked as though it had come down straight on its nose.
"It looks like it's attempted to land and it's hit a wire going across the road and plummeted straight down into the side of the Stuart Highway, right into the verge," he was quoted as saying.
The bodies of the three dead men have been removed from the wreckage and are in Katherine. Relatives of three have been informed and may travel our from Germany to Australia.
The police said the driver of a four-wheel-drive vehicle, which was travelling south on the Stuart Highway and may have witnessed the crash, has come forward and given a statement.
Kings Creek Station is near the Kings Canyon, a beauty spot popular with adventure tourists. Lyn Conway, who manages what is Australia's biggest camel ranch, said she was unaware the group was to arrive on Saturday.
"This is the first we've heard about it," she told the Northern Territory News.
- SAPA