Australian police divers have spent the day retrieving the wreckage of a light plane that crashed into the sea off Nambucca Heads, on the mid north New South Wales coastline. The bodies of the pilot and passenger were found in the aircraft which went down soon after taking-off from Coffs Harbour. Police say it could be a while before they find out what caused the crash.
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00:00Nearly 24 hours after crashing into the sea, what's left of this light plane is pulled
00:11onto shore by rescue crews.
00:13It crashed off the mid-north coast on Saturday, killing the pilot and passenger.
00:19Unfortunately a 69-year-old man and a 67-year-old man were found deceased in that aircraft.
00:28Todd O'Neill heard a plane flying over his home at South West Rocks soon after 3pm.
00:34I just knew it just didn't sound right.
00:37The engine was very low revving.
00:40It sounded as though it was struggling for power and it was very low.
00:44Moments later, witnesses saw it go down in the water near Nambucca Heads.
00:49The plane just started rolling and as it got closer to shore the waves started pulling
00:55it apart a bit more and started spreading up the beach a bit and parts started washing
00:59up on the beach.
01:01Police divers spent most of the day recovering parts of the wreckage but authorities say
01:06it could be months before the cause of the crash is determined.
01:09One body was recovered from the aircraft yesterday and the second was brought out of the water
01:15at Scotts Head Beach this morning.
01:17Anything in the ocean at the moment with tides and everything is always challenging with
01:21the movement of debris.
01:22The light plane took off from a private airfield at Coffs Harbour about half an hour before
01:28it went down.
01:29It's the second fatal aircraft crash in northern New South Wales in a week.
01:34A light plane came down at Palmer's Island near Yamba last Sunday, killing the pilot
01:40and injuring a passenger.
01:42Something that you can't plan for, you can't predict, it's just something that has happened
01:47in a very unfortunate incident.
01:49Another challenging recovery operation after a flight that went tragically wrong.