15 die in Aus plane crash
2005-05-08 09:03
Sydney - Police using chainsaws and machetes hacked through dense bush in far northern Australia on Sunday to reach the bodies of 15 people killed in a plane crash.
The Aero-Tropics Fairchild Metroliner twin-engine plane was flying between two Aboriginal townships in Queensland state's Cape York peninsula when it crashed into a 500m hill on Saturday.
Thirteen passengers, including a local policewoman who was engaged to be married, and two crew, are confirmed dead in the country's deadliest civilian plane crash since 1968.
Inspector Russell Rhodes, from Cape York police, told reporters three officers had been winched down by helicopter about 150m from the wreckage, 11km northwest of Lockhart River township.
He said the plane had crashed on a steep rocky outcrop, and dense bush and rugged terrain was hampering efforts by police and crash investigators to reach the site.
Police would try to set up a winching area about 50m from the crash site and hoped to be able to retrieve the bodies at first light on Monday.
Never arrived
Two specialist emergency response officers were expected to arrive on Sunday afternoon. Four air accident investigators are also headed for the scene and will search for the flight recorders.
The aircraft had taken off from the township of Bamaga on the tip of Cape York. Investigators said the pilot had radioed that he was approaching the Lockhart River airstrip and had given no indication of any problems, but the aircraft never arrived.
A helicopter found the wreckage about four hours later. Officials have said there was rain, low cloud and 20-knot winds in the area at the time.
Effif Eseli, 47, whose adopted son Fred Bowie was among those presumed killed, refuelled the plane at Bamaga Saturday, Australian media reported.
"I feel so bad, my son was on board and I gave them fuel," Eseli was quoted as saying. "It's just terrible. I just really want to know what happened."