ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 165424
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| Date: | Saturday 12 April 2014 |
| Time: | 12:45 LT |
| Type: |  Maule M-5-235C Lunar Rocket |
| Owner/operator: | Private |
| Registration: | VH-HOG |
| MSN: | 7322C |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 3 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Clarence River, Ewingar Ridge Rd, Ewingar, 85 km SW of Casino, NSW -
 Australia
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Private |
| Departure airport: | Tenterfield, NSW (YTFD) |
| Murwillumbah, NSW (YMUR) | |
| Investigating agency: | ATSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
The plane hit power lines and crashed into the Clarence River next to Ewingar Ridge Road, Ewingar, 85 km south-west of Casino, NSW, at 12:45pm on Saturday. An 11-year-old girl died in the crash.
The girl’s father, 39, was winched to an ambulance helicopter and flown to Lismore Base Hospital in a serious but stable condition. The male pilot, aged in his 50s, suffered minor injuries, but managed to free himself from the wreckage and alert authorities. He has been taken by ambulance to Lismore Base Hospital also in a serious but stable condition.
Emergency services had to battle tough terrain to get the plane, which was floating upside in the river. According to a press report ("the Northern Star" newspaper for 16th April 2014):
"After a painstaking operation lasting all day, the plane was finally dragged from its resting place and towed upstream to a waiting truck at about 5pm. The job started about 10am from Yates Crossing - a shallow causeway about 3 km upstream - where a flat-bottomed SES boat borrowed from Lismore was launched into the Clarence to venture downstream to the crash site.
The wreck lay in a still section of the river about 20 metres wide, marked by the tyres of the upturned plane and an outline of its underside in the murky water. It appeared in one piece, but random bits of wreckage were in fact strewn across the river bottom. At first the three divers spent about an hour taking photos of the wreck site in preparation for the recovery. The various pieces around the impact zone were then retrieved by the divers, which took at least two hours.
About 15 police, including white-overalled Police Rescue officers, Lismore detectives, and officers from the Air Wing unit, along with local landowners and SES volunteers gathered on the riverbank to collect the bits of wreckage.
A truck with a crane attached could be seen on the road above the riverbank awaiting the chance to lift any wreckage back to Lismore for analysis. But police were unable to get the entire plane out of the water at the crash site; the hull had to be towed back upstream back to Yates Crossing and hauled from the water.
It is understood the pilot, Goonengerry resident John Crumpton, attempted CPR on the 11-year-old girl who died in the crash on Saturday morning, before trekking, injured, across the bush to the closest property for help."
Although the ATSB accident investigation is currently ongoing, local media (press and TV) were reporting the cause of the crash as a CFITPL - Controlled Flight Into Power Lines. It is unknown what caused the Maule M-5 four seater to be flying below those heights when it struck powerlines across the Clarence River
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
1. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-12/girl-killed-as-light-plane-crashes-into-clarence-river/5386254
2. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/girl-12-killed-in-light-plane-crash-near-casino/story-fni0cx4q-1226881899442
3. https://au.news.yahoo.com/fun-flight-ends-in-girls-death-22611413.html
4. http://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2014/aair/ao-2014-068.aspx
5. http://www.regosearch.com/aircraft/au/HOG
6. https://www.recreationalflying.com/threads/clarence-river-crash-nsw-12-04-14.116512/
Media:
Maule M-5-235C Lunar Rocket VH-HOG at Wedderburn (YWBN), NSW, 14 November 2010
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 12-Apr-2014 07:40 | gerard57 | Added |
| 13-Apr-2014 06:03 | David Carter | Updated [Aircraft type, Source] |
| 13-Apr-2014 18:38 | Bidgee | Updated [Aircraft type, Registration, Cn, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source] |
| 04-May-2014 16:54 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Source, Embed code, Narrative] |
| 04-May-2014 16:57 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Departure airport, Destination airport, Embed code] |
| 08-Apr-2016 12:53 | Kardz | Updated [Operator] |
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