A fisherman who narrowly missed his life appeared unfazed and continued fishing after an airplane door fell from the sky and landed just meters away from him.
Locals watched in horror as a small plane door fell from the sky towards a fisherman standing on South Broulee Beach on the New South Wales south coast at around 9.30am on Friday morning.
The door of a small plane had come loose from the aircraft, and locals were terrified that someone on the ground would be injured.
Murphy Shaw, 22, was visiting from Canberra to surf at South Broulee Beach and told Daily Mail Australia he was in the water with about 10 other surfers.
“The plane flew over it, which is pretty common for that area,” he said.
‘But there was a commotion in the water and when I looked up I suddenly saw a door that was spraying down towards the earth.’
The student said he initially thought it was “heading straight for the surf.”
“But as it got a little lower, you could see it was going to land on the beach,” Shaw said.
Murphy Shaw, 22, from Canberra (pictured) was surfing at South Broulee Beach in the morning when he saw the door of a plane crash down
The student (pictured) said he thought the door would land in the surf, but as he got closer, he and the other surfers thought it would land on a fisherman.
‘And it would land very close to the only man on the beach, which was this man who was fishing.
“We thought, ‘Oh no, it’s aimed at that guy over there.’”
The 22-year-old said that at the time everyone in the water tried to get the fisherman’s attention, “without success” as he was about 100 metres away from the surfers.
“He didn’t take cover, he just kept fishing,” he said.
‘And the door landed 20 yards behind him – but he just kept on fishing.
‘He didn’t really care. He just cast his line out again and kept fishing.’
Mr Shaw said the moment he saw the door fall from the sky felt surreal.
“I think it’s one of those weird, surreal moments where you think, ‘That’s a glitch in the Matrix, I shouldn’t have seen that,'” he said.
“It’s a strange mix of emotions. Luckily, in the end, no one was hurt.”
The student said that when the door closed, there was a “loud bang” and a bang. He thought the door had “landed on driftwood.”
The door fell to the ground with a ‘thud’ and a ‘bang’, landing in the undergrowth beyond the sand – missing the fisherman by 20 metres (pictured South Broulee Beach on the New South Wales south coast)
The private plane returned to Moruya airport after it lost its door because the latch was not ‘properly secured’
Mr Shaw said that shortly after the plane door crashed to the ground in the bushes behind the beach, someone arrived and carried the door away.
It appears to have been returned to the airport.
A Eurobodalla Shire Council spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia the door had “come loose” from a private plane.
“The pilot and passenger made a normal landing and returned safely to Moruya Airport,” the spokesman said.
The door was found in the woods just north of the airport.
‘The pilot informed airport personnel that the door latch was not properly engaged and apologized for any anxiety the incident had caused.’
The spokesperson said the council has reported the incident to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and it is up to them whether to conduct an investigation.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau spokesperson said Daily Mail Australia reported that they had received the report about the plane.
“The ATSB decided not to conduct an investigation as it was considered unlikely that this would provide new safety lessons,” the investigators said.
‘The ATSB is not a regulator, but an independent investigator whose role is to conduct ‘no blame’ investigations to improve transport safety.’