The final tragic moments of a grandfather and his three grandchildren who died in a horrific fireball when their plane fell from the sky have been revealed.
Air traffic footage has captured the moment air traffic controllers realized something had gone terribly wrong with the light aircraft, minutes after it took off from Canberra on Friday.
The experienced pilot, 65, flew the four-seat Cirrus SR22 with his 11-year-old grandson and his two granddaughters, aged nine and six, on board alongside him during the 750km journey to Armidale in northern NSW.
The grandfather, from Bunya in Brisbane, is said to have had hundreds of hours of flying experience. His grandchildren are said to be from NSW.
The aircraft was registered to Up N Up Aviation, owned by Mike Cahill, president of Brisbane’s Redcliffe Aero Club. It is not clear who was flying the 21-year-old aircraft at the time of the tragic accident.
It crashed minutes after take-off, falling from the sky and crashing into the ground, where it burst into flames near Lake George in the NSW Tablelands.
The single-engine aircraft, registration VH-MSF, exploded on impact around 2:50 p.m. Police said there were no survivors and formally identifying the dead could take weeks due to the severity of the tragedy.
Recordings of ATC radio transmissions at the time of the crash reveal air traffic controllers’ increasingly desperate efforts to lift the pilot when they saw his plane had disappeared from their screens.
The final tragic moments of a grandfather and his three grandchildren who died in a horrific fireball when their plane fell from the sky have been revealed. The remains of the plane can be seen above
The crashed plane was registered to Up N Up Aviation, owned by Mike Cahill (pictured), chairman of the Redcliffe Aero Club
The five-seat single-engine Cirrus SR22 VH-MSF crashed and flew near Lake George in the NSW Tablelands about 2.52pm on Friday, NSW Police said.
At 2:36 p.m. the plane was cleared to take off and at 2:40 p.m. the plane, referred to on the radio as ‘Mike Sierra Foxtrot’, was steered towards 010.
The pilot responds with a short ‘copy’.
Two minutes later, ATC says the aircraft is ‘four miles east of Canberra’ and tells them to ‘resume navigation and proceed directly to Cullen (a small town near Mudgee on the way to Armidale)’.
A voice answers, “Right, Cullen, Mike Sierra Foxtrot.” This is believed to be the last transmission from aboard the aircraft.
The aircraft then maintains radio silence as it slowly climbs to 2,000 meters, reaching a speed of 137 knots, before its ground speed rapidly decreases as it continues to climb.
By the time it reached 30,000 feet, the aircraft had lost all forward speed and suddenly fell from the sky near Lake George, 35 km north of Canberra Airport.
It crashed to the ground within 60 seconds, where it exploded on impact on farmland near Gundaroo.
At exactly 2:50 p.m., a Canberra Approach air traffic controller realized something was wrong and tried to call the pilot on his radio
Over the next two minutes he tries ten times to get a response from the plane after the radar signal disappears, continuously repeating, “Mike Sierra Foxtrot, this is Canberra Approach.”
But the pleas are met with silence.
A minute later, another controller at Canberra Tower joined the search and also asked the pilot to respond, before both controllers then continued their attempts to get a response.
Meanwhile, other aircraft continue to land and take off from Canberra Airport, prompting a warning from ATC to the other pilots: ‘There is a problem with a light aircraft – we will let you know.’
Both Tower and Approach controllers continue to attempt to get a response for the pilot before the official alarm is raised at 2:57 p.m.
“Pay attention to all stations,” says the tower controller. ‘Please note that a flight has just disappeared from radar so there may be some delays at this time until we can receive further instructions.’
The controllers continued to try to raise the pilot, but by then he and his grandchildren were already dead.
Emergency services arrived at a property on Hadlow Drive, Gundaroo, just before 3pm after a local resident reported seeing flames in the crash area.
A light aircraft crashed (pictured) in Canberra’s north-east on Friday afternoon before catching fire
Emergency services (pictured) arrived on the scene after the crash as firefighters from the Rural Fire Service worked quickly to extinguish the flames
Shortly afterwards, smoke was seen as firefighters, ambulances and police vehicles rushed to the scene.
Firefighters worked quickly to extinguish the fire and police have cordoned off a crime scene as investigations continue.
“When police arrived with RFS services there was a small grass fire and obviously a catastrophic crash of a small light aircraft,” Police Commissioner Cath Bradbury said.
‘The RFS extinguished the aircraft – unfortunately there are no survivors. They have yet to be formally identified. A report will be prepared for the coroner.”
There were ‘minimal witnesses’ to the crash according to Chief Inspector Bradbury, who confirmed police would be working through the night to get to the bottom of the cause of the horrific incident.
“Officers from Monaro Police District are investigating the incident including confirming how many people were on board at the time,” the spokesperson said.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has also been notified and will be on site.
The US-made Cirrus SR-22 is a single-engine aircraft and one of the most popular General Aviation aircraft in the world, regularly topping global bestseller lists.
Six minutes after takeoff, the plane took a sharp dive near Lake George, during which air traffic control was unable to establish communication with the pilot
The Cirrus SR-22 is a single-engine aircraft and is one of the most popular General Aviation aircraft in the world, regularly topping global bestseller lists
It climbed steadily to 10,000 feet, but gradually began to lose ground speed as it gained altitude, reaching 7,000 feet, until the aircraft suddenly fell out of the sky at 9,000 feet near Lake George.
ATSB Chief Constable Angus Mitchell said investigators would arrive at the scene on Friday evening.
‘In the coming days, investigators with experience in aircraft operations and maintenance will be on site conducting a range of evidence collection activities, including site mapping, wreckage examination and recovery of aircraft parts for further investigation in the area. ATSB technical facilities in Canberra,” he said. .
‘Investigators will also seek to interview witnesses and involved parties and collect relevant recorded information, including flight tracking data, as well as pilot and aircraft maintenance data, and weather information.’