Two dead in light plane crash at Lilydale, north of Grafton in northern NSW

Investigators are still trying to work out what caused a deadly plane crash in the north of New South Wales.

Transcript

00:00 What we do know is at about nine o'clock yesterday morning a light plane was seen flying low

00:07 over this area which is known as the Lillydale Ridge right beside the Clarence River. Now

00:13 it's thought the aircraft may have clipped power lines. That does seem to be a credible

00:18 report because we have seen a number of power company vehicles coming to and from the site

00:24 over the last day or so. What we do know for sure is that just moments after that the plane

00:30 crashed with devastating impact. The pilot who was described by police as a man in his

00:36 30s and his passenger, a boy less than 10 years old, both died at the scene. Now this

00:42 is an absolutely idyllic location and it's quite a popular spot with free campers. So

00:49 there were a number of people camping in tents and caravans only about 300 metres away from

00:54 the crash scene. They obviously heard the impact but as a witness who's actually a registered

01:00 nurse from Coffs Harbour told me, by the time they got to the site of the crash there was

01:05 nothing they could do. It was so intense, the flames and the black spilling smoke and

01:11 it was very, very hot and once I finally, while I was calling emergency services I was

01:19 sort of investigating at the same time what I was actually looking at and realised that

01:25 there was nothing I could do for anyone that was there involved. It was pretty intense.

01:32 What we know at this stage is admittedly a fairly incomplete picture. We're told that

01:38 the aircraft was actually a kit plane known as a Highlander. It was just a two seater

01:43 so the two people on board obviously both died at the scene. We're told that it took

01:50 off from the Gold Coast on Monday morning but it's not known where it landed and where

01:55 that pair spent Monday night and where they were heading on Tuesday morning. Investigators

02:00 will also try to determine what caused the crash, why the plane was flying so low. Was

02:07 it a case of tragic pilot error or was there some sort of engine difficulty that caused

02:12 the plane to lose altitude? That could be really challenging to determine because the

02:17 impact of the crash, it seems like it was extraordinary and as we've seen the fuselage

02:24 and the tail of the aircraft are both sticking up almost vertically out of that soft sand

02:31 beside the Clarence River. So as I say, definitely a tragedy and at this stage a bit of a mystery

02:37 as well.

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