Police & SES volunteers searching South-West find missing plane & pilot
UPDATED 12:04hrs 07.12.09
Police, FESA and SES volunteers searching the South-West have found the missing Ultralight plane with its 53 year old pilot alive. The plane is thought to have crashed on its way from Narrogin to Bunbury yesterday. The man has been found in a farm paddock in Chester about 6 kilometres from the Brockman Highway. It is believed he has suffered serious back injuries.
The Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Canberra alerted WA Police that the pilot was overdue for his scheduled arrival (1500hrs) at Bunbury yesterday afternoon.
Cloud cover delayed the departure of up to 16 aircraft which were to search for the plane.
The National Rescue Coordination Centre says the search has been narrowed to a 4000 square kilometre area stretching from Margaret River to Bridgetown.
A local farmer has reported seeing a small plane about 15 kilometres from Bridgetown about 2030hrs yesterday but the Bunbury Aero Club has told the ABC that aircraft may have been one of the planes sent up late yesterday to look for the missing ultralight.
The search for the missing aircraft began at 6am today. Volunteers from the Northshore SES unit have formed part of the search teams.
