A couple are dead and a pilot has escaped without serious injury after a mid-air collision between two light planes at an airfield north of Brisbane.
The man and woman, both in their 60s, were killed when the plane they were travelling in collided with another aircraft at Caboolture airfield about 10.30am on Friday.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s chief commissioner, Angus Mitchell, said the two planes – a Piper Pawnee and a Jabiru J430 – crash while one was landing on one runway and the other was taking off from a crossing runway.
“Tragically, both occupants of the Jabiru were fatally injured. The Pawnee pilot was uninjured,” he said.
Queensland Ambulance Service’s senior operations supervisor, Matthew Davis, said a man and woman in their 60s were confirmed dead.
Davis described the scene as “incredibly confronting”.
“Any incident involving the loss of life, particularly under these circumstances [is] extremely, extremely difficult and hard, obviously, for the first responders and most importantly for the family.”
Police confirmed the planes were flying low when the crash occurred at the eastern end of the airfield.
“I’m not able to speculate on exactly where they were positioned when they collided but I believe that it was in the process of landing and/or taking off,” Superintendent Paul Ready said. “It’s devastating that we’ve had a loss of life.”
Ready said the aerodrome would be closed while police investigated. He urged any witnesses to contact authorities.
“There will be people who may have seen some of the aircraft and their movements prior to the collision,” he said.
Investigators from the ATSB arrived at the site on Friday to begin piecing together what happened. The investigation is expected to take at least six weeks before the release of a preliminary report.
Caboolture Airfield caters to general aviation and ultralight aircraft and is not controlled by Airservices Australia.
A spokesman confirmed the aircraft involved were registered and not linked to the gliding club based at the airfield.
• This article was amended on 28 July 2023 to remove a tweet depicting a crash at Caboolture Airfield in 2017.
Australian Associated Press contributed to this report
