15 presumed dead in Aus crash
2005-05-07 15:41
Canberra - A plane carrying 15 people slammed into a hillside in Australia's remote far northeast on Saturday, probably killing all on board in the nation's worst air disaster in almost a decade, authorities said.
The twin-propellor plane was heading for Lockhart River, an Aboriginal community of 350 people in Queensland, known as an artist colony.
Its wreck, burning in dense tropical forest on the side of a hill 11km from the plane's intended destination, was spotted late on Saturday by a search aircraft, Australian Search and Rescue spokesperson Tracey Jiggins said.
Survivors 'unlikely'
Rescuers were not expected to reach the site until Sunday morning.
"It's impossible to say at this stage if there's been any survivors. It appears unlikely though," Jiggins told reporters.
Peter Gibson of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority told Australian television's Nine Network the plane had been flying in rain, low clouds and moderate winds when it slammed into the side of the hill.
The Fairchild Metroliner plane, operated by north Queensland-based airline Aero-Tropics, had been due to arrive at Lockhart River at about midday.
It had radioed it was about to land before the crash, police Superintendent Michael Keating told reporters.
Confusion over passengers
Confusion over the passenger list initially led authorities to believe 18 people were on board, Jiggins said. But three booked passengers did not board the flight.
Two pilots and 13 passengers were aboard, Jiggins said.
The aircraft was en route from Bamaga, a community of 2 000 near the tip of the Cape York Peninsula, about 280km from Lockhart River, she said.
The crash was Australia's worst air disaster since two army Black Hawk helicopters collided near the Queensland city of Townsville, killing 18 people in 1996.
Lockhart River is a former Anglican mission where Aborigines from across Cape York were placed in the 1920s until the outbreak of World War II, when they were told to return to their ancestral lands.
The mission was re-established as a community for Aborigines in 1947 and the church handed it to the Queensland government in 1964.
In recent years, the tiny township has become known as the home of a critically acclaimed group of Aboriginal artists known as the Lockhart River Gang whose works sell for tens of thousands of dollars.
Calls to the community's Aboriginal Council offices went unanswered on Saturday night.
- AP