Detective Chief Inspector David Cockram, South Coast Police District

Bay Post-Moruya Examiner

South Coast Police give an update on the missing aircraft crashed in the Budawang National Park

Transcript

00:00Yes, Chief Inspector David Cochram. Cochram spelled C-O-C-K-R-A-M. I'm attached to the South

00:06Coast Police District. All right, can you fill us in please on what's happened over yesterday

00:09afternoon and today? Yeah, sure. About 4.30pm yesterday afternoon, police and emergency services

00:15were notified of an aircraft beacon, an emergency beacon that had been activated. Emergency services

00:21were eventually led to a position in the Buttawang National Park. Police, together with other services

00:27including Toll and other rescue agencies, responded to that area where they found what we believe is

00:34a crashed aircraft. Our enquiries so far, we think that aircraft left from Bankstown Airport yesterday

00:41with a solo passenger, with a pilot and no other people on board. The circumstances of that aircraft

00:48colliding and crashing into the land, the circumstances of that are unknown at this stage.

00:53that there's significant resources being deployed there this morning to try and get access to that

00:59aircraft and then also determine each pilot's condition. Given the terrain last night, we weren't

01:08able to access the remote area in the Buttawang National Park last night to carry out that process,

01:13so unfortunately that's been left of this morning. We're just doing our best at the moment to get in

01:18there and ascertain exactly what's going on. To my understanding that they can only be accessed by

01:23foot at this current point. What sort of capacity do you have out there attending that site on foot?

01:28And I guess, what kind of conditions are those people traversing through? They're pretty full on

01:33terrain, bush terrain. Last night we had fog, so again that prevented the aircraft being able to

01:39deploy people down into that exact location. But Police Rescue or the primary agency, they'll get in

01:45on foot as you say, and they'll have the support of various other agencies including the air safety

01:51team that will be in there to determine the circumstances of the crash. Could you tell us how

01:57many officers are deployed down there for the rescue? I don't have the exact numbers, but there's

02:01significant numbers down at the moment, including a search controller, a team from our rescue unit,

02:08and then the supporting agencies, likely SES, RFS and ambulance I'd suggest as well.

02:15When an emergency location transmitter is sent off to authorities, do authorities have the capacity

02:23to speak to the pilot in that circumstance? Have authorities made contact with the pilot yesterday?

02:28No, I don't think that's possible. That can be done. Probably done through air traffic control,

02:33depending on the location, but given the remoteness, I'm not sure if he had pilot. Given the type of

02:38flight would have been in contact with air traffic control. From the air, can you see the condition

02:42of the plane at all? I don't know. I haven't seen it. The pilot in question, were they the only person

02:48on that aircraft? Yeah, we understand there's a sole occupant, there's only the pilot. So that's

02:53part of our inquiries this morning is to obviously try and locate that fellow and determine if there's

02:58any other passengers. So it is a male. What kind of age are we looking at and what's his experience level

03:03when it comes to flying? I understand that the fellow rented the aircraft from Maxden Airport.

03:08That's as much detail as I have. I'm not aware of his experience or anything like that. What condition

03:14are you expecting to find the man in? The inquiries we've made with air traffic controllers and air

03:22safety last night, they're of the view because unlikely the fellow would survive the impact that they

03:28observe. So they're not looking good, unfortunately. If you can't get in there on foot, there's a possibility to be

03:33winched down? Yeah, there's a whole number of options available to us depending on where they are.

03:39What are the chances of that site being accessed this afternoon? I think pretty good. Yeah, I think

03:44our people will be in there and be able to do an assessment of what's happened. But there's obviously

03:49different parts of the aircraft that need to be recovered in certain ways to use safety. So that might

03:55be an ongoing process but I'm confident we'll be in there to establish the condition of the pilot at least.

04:00How do you approach the recovery of either the man himself or parts of the plane for investigation?

04:05Yeah, again, it all depends on the weather and things like that. The most commonly used would

04:10just be a vertical lift with a winch to an aircraft. The remains of the plane, I wouldn't,

04:16probably not sure on that one. There'd be more for the air safety.

04:20Are the man's family having been in touch? What have they said?

04:23Not sure. Yeah, I'm not aware. I'm sure that those inquiries have been ongoing,

04:27who we presume was piloting the plane last night. But personally, I'm not aware of those.

04:30There are some discussions and conversations.

04:32And in terms of initial investigations, what were the weather conditions like yesterday afternoon?

04:39Would that have been a contributing factor?

04:41The only thing I'm aware of is just the fog. There was fog present yesterday. So other than that,

04:46I'm not aware of any other contributing factors.

04:51I understand it's the man in the 60s. Can that be a contributing factor?

04:53I don't know.

04:56Is there anything unusual about this?

04:58Oh, it's unusual in the fact, I suppose, it's not very often we have an aircraft crashing into the

05:05lands, particularly in that area. I can't recall it happening in the last 10 or so years. So no,

05:10not something we respond to all the time.

05:12Just on the back of this incident, is there any advice you want to offer to other aircraft users?

05:17Oh, not really. My expertise around aircraft doesn't really warrant me to comment on that,

05:23but it's just similar to what I'd say about road users. Just, you know, fly, drive to the conditions.

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