Leighton Beach plane crash: pilot and her son’s miraculous escape during emergency beachside landing
Heartbreaking moment as plane crashes into crowded beach as female pilot is hailed as a hero for saving her 15-year-old son’s life
- Michelle Yeats, 45, plane landed on Perth beach
- Engine failure caused an emergency landing at 5:00 PM
- Yeats and son Jake, 15, escaped serious injury
A pilot and her teenage son had to evacuate their light aircraft after it crashed into the sea off the coast of Western Australia.
Michelle Yeats, 45, was flying back to Perth with her 15-year-old son Jake after watching the solar eclipse over northern Western Australia when the plane’s engine failed near North Fremantle at about 5pm on Thursday.
Ms Yeats says the aircraft, a Cessna 0-1G ‘Bird Dog’, started behaving strangely, prompting her to send out a mayday and make a quick decision to attempt a water landing at Leightons Beach.
“Mate, we’ve just had an engine failure, we’re going to have to land on the beach,” the airline pilot told the airline. ABC she said to her son.
Michelle Yeats, 45, was forced to make an emergency landing just after 5pm on Thursday at Leighton Beach in Perth (pictured, the plane hits the water)
The plane started behaving strangely after the engine failed, with Ms Yeats landing the ship 30 to 50 meters from shore (pictured, the plane submerged)
“He was like ‘really, are you for real?
“I said, ‘hopefully this is the most exciting thing that’s going to happen in your life and we’ll be all right.'”
Ms Yeats said she had trained for such a landing ‘many, many times’ but never expected she would actually have to do it.
“I was only at 1,500 feet, I didn’t have much time to react, so I just sent a May day to the tower and then just turned around and landed on the water – I tried to get as close to the beach as I could without hitting anyone,” said Ms Yeats.
“I’m pretty shaky, I’m full of adrenaline, but that’s what you train for.
“I never thought I’d have to do it in real life,” she said.
“Then Jake got the door open real quick and we just got out as he went downstairs.”
“We were just standing on the wings … I was just thinking, we’re going to have to swim,” said Ms Yeats.
The plane crashed about 30 to 50 meters from Leighton Beach, half an hour outside Perth, with onlookers swimming out to help them get back to shore.
Ms Yeats is a commercial pilot who was watching the solar eclipse in northern Western Australia with her 15-year-old son Jake when the incident occurred (pictured, the sinking plane)
The pair miraculously escaped and were helped ashore by onlookers to Leighton Beach (pictured, the sinking plane)
Both Mrs Yeats and Jake were checked by St John WA.
Police said most of the plane was submerged in the water, with only a small portion visible above the waterline.
Acting Inspector Mark Cannon said Yeats landed the plane “fantastic”.
“I’m definitely going to ask them for the lottery numbers,” he said at a press conference on the beach.
“Obviously it must have been a scary incident for them, but the pilot did a fantastic job bringing it down.
“We’re close to a lot of public buildings and stuff, so they did a good job putting it where they did it.”
Insp Cannon confirmed that no fuel was spilled after the incident and police are now investigating ways to retrieve the plane from the ocean.