A pilot has escaped serious injury after he was forced to make an emergency landing in the Sunshine Coast hinterland this morning.
The small aircraft came down heavily around 10am, landing upside down in a paddock on Melawondi Road near Imbil.
Vic Pisani was the sole occupant of the aircraft and police said he was not injured in the incident, but he was taken to Gympie Hospital.
Builders Marty Reinwald and Matt Frost were working nearby on a house at the time and were the first on scene.
The pair said it was terrifying and they were concerned that the aircraft was going to "blow up".
Mr Reinwald said they could hear the plane flying past, but then the engine cut out.
"He was just circling and circling and there was no sound at all and then we thought, 'Well, maybe it's just a training drill' but then he started losing altitude a little bit," Mr Reinwald said.
As the pair filmed the ordeal, they panicked when it appeared the plane was heading "directly for the house", but then it skimmed past metres from the property.
"It crashed in the paddock right in front of us and at the end he must have dug the nose in and flipped completely over."
The builders called for the landowners to contact the Queensland Ambulance Service while they ran to check on the pilot.
As they arrived, he was exiting the aircraft.
"He was a bit shaken up ... but he was all right.
"He said he had put out a mayday call and he got back straight on the phone with authorities and let them know that he was all right."
The pilot told the pair he had just purchased the plane and was stopping at Warwick to refuel before heading home to Coffs Harbour.
