NSW Police have reported on a fatal microlight crash near Brisbane Grove Road about 200m north-west of the Goulburn Airport that has claimed the life of a 48-year-old male


A number of witnesses contacted emergency services after seeing the aircraft crash - the pilot was a local from Goulburn

Police have reported on a light aircraft crash that has injured two men - one critically


Authorities say the aircraft went down in hills near Mount Coleridge around 35kms south-west of Innisfail at about 1700hrs to-day

The two men have been rescued with one being treated for minor injuries at Innisfail Hospital while the other is in critical condition and is being evacuated to Cairns Base Hospital

The news media initially reported the critically injured person as 59-year-old Bob Harris - Chief Flying Instructor and owner of Hinchinbrook Air Services - however " © The Cairns Post " later reported the pilot as Ken Howard - a 25,000 hour instructor - who was training 25-year-old David Graham in a low-level navigation exercise



The downed aircraft was a Cessna 172 on a cross-country training flight when the engine failed forcing the emergency landing into the dense jungle-type terrain

An emergency beacon was activated before the plane went down, which led an Emergency Management Queensland rescue helicopter crew to the vicinity of the crash. After searching the thick forest for 20 minutes, rescuers noticed smoke from a flare that led them to the site



"It was very hilly, dense forest - if it wasn't for that smoke signal I don't think we would have found them so quickly"

A 19-year-old student pilot - on what appears to be a solo cross-country flight in Piper Warrior - had departed Bankstown Airport for Warnervale when low visibility problems forced him to make an emergency landing on mudflats at the Wamberal lagoon


The weather at the time was marginal for flying by Visual Flight Rules with low cloud and steady rain

A group of 'Grey Nomads' - eight Sydney pensioners who were on a joy-flight in a Piper Chieftain - ended up making a safe emergency landing on the Mundowdna Station airstrip in South OZ after staying at the nearby Marree Caravan Park over the weekend


The mature-age adventurers had flown out to the region to see the effect recent rains had made on the outback desert landscape