Incident

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Incident

Pilot and nurse killed in tragic medical flight

16 June 2010 00:59 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The 28-year-old pilot and his only passenger, Katherine Sheppard, a nurse in her 40s and a mother of four, were en route to Brisbane for a medical transfer -- a trip the pair had undertaken many times before -- when at least one of the plane’s engines began to labour, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.
It quickly became clear that they were not going to make the short distance back to Bankstown.
"We’re not maintaining height here, you got any ideas . . . are there any good roads around?" the pilot asked the airport’s control tower, just a few minutes after take off at about 8am yesterday.
The tower replied that the M7 roadway -- one of Sydney’s busiest thoroughfares, particularly during peak hour -- was nearby. "The M7 should be in your vicinity somewhere -- you’re just approaching the three-mile boundary (of the airport) now."
The pilot responded seconds later: "We’ve got no height here, sorry."
The control tower then confirmed that there were "no main roadways in your vicinity", but by that time Mr Wilson -- who still sounded remarkably composed in his dispatches -- had taken matters into his own hands.
"We’ll have to put it down in the road," he said matter-of-factly.
The tower made one last desperate suggestion to Mr Wilson that he try to land at nearby Warwick Farm racecourse, but the pilot said he couldn’t see it.
Moments later, as he attempted to bring the light aircraft down in suburban Canley Vale, the Piper Mojave clipped the top of two power poles before slamming into a fence just metres away from Canley Vale Public School.
The plane exploded on impact and Mr Wilson and Ms Sheppard died instantly. It was reported last night that in the minutes before the crash, Ms Sheppard made a phone call to a member of her family.
Authorities believe the pilot could have been trying to land at a large sports oval just opposite the school, and may have been able to do so had the plane’s wing not struck the first power pole.
Air crash investigators said yesterday they would look at whether heavy fog may have deterred Mr Wilson from making an emergency landing at an airstrip in Richmond, near where the pilot first reported engine trouble.
But last night, a Defence spokesman told The Australian that air traffic control at Richmond’s RAAF had been contacted by Sydney Airport Air Traffic Control as to whether it could receive the aircraft, and responded that it could.
It remains unclear whether Mr Wilson was made aware of this.
No one on the ground was injured when the plane crashed on Canley Vale Road, although a man and his three children had a lucky escape when the Piper Mojave exploded just 10m in front of them.
Steve Donoghue, general manager of Mr Wilson’s employer Wingaway Air, said the experienced pilot from country Victoria had worked for the airline for the past four years, regularly clocking up 45 hours of flying time a week.
"The hard part is we can’t find any reason for it (the crash) at this point in time," Mr Donoghue said.
"I’m sure in his mind, he probably thought he could make it back to Bankstown."