A pilot has severe burns on most of his body and broken bones after his plane crashed and exploded into flames near Maitland in the New South Wales Hunter Valley.
A specialist team on board the Westpac Rescue Helicopter has flown the Hinton man, believed to be in his 40s, to Royal North Shore Hospital in a critical condition.
The Cessna light plane crashed at Luskintyre, north-west of Maitland, just before 2pm today.