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[Team Player]

Hunter Valley Club defends safety after fatal plane crash

he president of the Hunter Valley Recreational Flying Club in New South Wales has defended the safety of a flying tour after two of its members were killed in a weekend light plane crash in north Queensland.

Clive and Janet Bradburn from Kurrajong, near the Blue Mountains, were on the return leg of a two-week flying tour when their plane crashed about 100 kilometres west of Townsville on Sunday.

Authorities have recovered the couple's bodies after the wreckage was found by a rescue team in rugged country about 10:00am (AEST) yesterday.

The club's president, Keith Rule, has cancelled the final leg of the tour and says it is not yet known what caused the accident.

Mr Rule says he knew something was wrong when the couple missed a safety check-in with the group leader.

"When we are flying the aircraft in the group, we have a 15 minutes observation that we must ring and check each other," he said.

"When that 15 minutes was up and they did not report, the search was initiated immediately.

"We have a very good safety record and we make sure that all our members and everyone that flies with us comply to that standard."

He says the accident has devastated the other members on the flying tour.

Source: ABC News
www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/15/2303733.htm

[J430]

Having some inside words onthis it sounds like an incapacitation and the lady haas been taken out as a result.

Sad event all the same.

J

[Kiwi]

Tragic indeed if that was what happened in this case.
I have a friend whose younger brother died when the aircraft his father was piloting crashed as a result of the father having a heart attack.