Three people have died after a light plane crashed into the ocean near Goolwa South in South Australia on Friday.
Police responded to reports of the small plane crashing into the water at Long Bay about 4.20pm, with emergency services responding to the area immediately.
All three men on board were killed in the accident, including the 57-year-old pilot from Morphett Vale, an 18-year-old man from Freeling and a 19-year-old from Pasadena, police said on Satuday morning.
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The wreckage of the Cessna was brought onto shore near the Murray Mouth on Saturday, SA police senior constable Rebecca Stokes told ABC News Adelaide.
“Just tragic news for three families in South Australia today,” Stokes said.
Separately, a second small plane crashed in Normanton, near the Gulf of Carpentaria, in Queensland on Friday. Emergency services were called to the area about 800m west of Normanton airport about 8pm. Police were unsure about the injuries of those onboard as the crash site has been difficult to access.
“At this time, emergency services have had difficulty accessing the crash site and injuries of those onboard are unknown,” Queensland police said.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is investigating both crashes.
The agency said the fatal plane crash in Goolwa South involved a single-engine Cessna 210 aircraft. Safety investigators were due on the scene on Saturday to examine the wreckage, interview witnesses and collect video footage or recorded flight tracking data.
A video published by Seven News Adelaide appears to show the plane spinning out of control before nose-diving into the ocean.
The ATSB acting chief commissioner, Colin McNamara, said the agency expressed its deepest condolences to the families and friends who lost loved ones in the accident.
He said it would take about eight weeks to publicly release details about the circumstances behind the accident but called on those in the community to come forward with any recordings of the crash.
“We are aware there are a number of video recordings of the accident sequence, some of which have been shown in media,” he said. “That footage captured the aircraft in a very steep nose-down trajectory a couple of hundred metres offshore.
“Analysis of those video recordings will be instrumental to the investigation and we do ask that anyone with video footage of the aircraft at any stage of its flight, and of the accident sequence, to make contact with the ATSB via the witness form on our website at their earliest opportunity.”
A member of the Goolwa Surf Life Saving Club said members were among the first on scene, dealing with 2-metre high waves in the area. They described the initial response as “extremely difficult”.
“It was pretty sketchy out there, it was difficult to operate, trying to pick your way through the surf,” lifesaver Matt Burrage said during a news conference.
The ATSB said later on Saturday the Normanton crash involved a Beechcraft King Air aircraft and investigators would soon head to the accident site, where they would conduct interviews and gather evidence, as well as examine the wreckage.
The agency has also encouraged anyone with video footage or who saw or heard the accident to make contact.
Goolwa South is about 70km south of Adelaide. Normanton is a small outback town in north-western Queensland with a population of about 1,400 people.
