A 61-year-old recreational pilot from Bees Creek in the NT was forced to make an emergency landing onto the Barkly Highway north of Mount Isa after running out of fuel



The male pilot was able to land his Jabiru on a section of the deserted highway and call for assistance - apparently the stronger than expected headwinds increased flying time that caused the fuel to be depleted when only 12km from the Isa

Shell Aviation Refuellers and local police helped refuel the ultralight with aviation gas allowing the pilot to take-off from the road at around 1100hrs



Quoting from the news report - "Recreational pilots are all trained in emergency landings because the engines on recreational planes are more prone to stoppage ..compared to normal light aircraft"

Federal police are investigating the suspected sabotage of a Qantas' 265-seat Boeing 767 in Brisbane last Wednesday after ground engineers discovered several wires on an in-flight entertainment system had been cut



It appears that the risk of more serious sabotage or malicious damage to aircraft was one the reasons for the delay in returning aircraft to the sky after the grounding last week