3 people dead after light plane collides in Australia

SYDNEY: Three men died on Saturday (Oct 26) when two light planes collided in mid-air and crashed in a wooded area southwest of Sydney.

Australian police, fire and rescue services and an ambulance reached two wreck sites on foot, located in semi-rural bush about 88km southwest of Sydney. One plane burst into flames after impact.

New South Wales Police Acting Chief Superintendent Timothy Calman confirmed that a Cessna 182 carrying two people collided with an ultralight aircraft from a nearby airport with one person on board.

No further details of the victims were provided.

Witnesses saw “shrapnel falling from the sky” and tried to help, but “there probably wasn’t much that could be done,” Calman told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He noted that both accidents, approximately 1 km apart, were “unsurvivable.”

NSW Ambulance Inspector Joseph Ibrahim, a member of the emergency response team, told the ABC: “unfortunately there was nothing they could do.”

The cause of the crash will be investigated by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.