Swan River plane crash – seaplane goes down in Perth during Australia Day celebrations
Perth, Western Australia – A plane has crashed into the Swan River in Perth, during national Australia Day celebrations, killing two people.
Video showed the plane turned sharply at low altitude, before crashing hard into the water around 5.10 pm local time.
Private boats, Police and Paramedics rushed to the scene of the crash.
The aircraft appears to have broken up into at least two parts on impact.
Images from the scene show first responders attempting to access the wreckage floating on the surface.
The aircraft was 69-years-old and registered to Peter Lynch from Queensland, Australia.
The aircraft was a Grumman G-73 Mallard, registration VH-CQA.
Video posted from the scene – shot from a party boat – showed the shocking crash.
Image: Grumman G-73 Mallard in 2014.
The aircraft was flying a display during the Australia Day City of Perth Air Show 2017. It departed Serpentine Airport at 16:28 and proceeded along the coast towards Perth. A holding pattern was flown to the east of Garden Island at an altitude of approximately 1600 feet, waiting to fly a display. At 16:50 it continued north towards Perth, flying down Swan River. It circled over the water until the aircraft lost altitude in a turn, impacting the water nose down. The aircraft broke up on impact.
About 1-hour after the incident the evening fireworks spectacular, the Australia Day Skyshow, was cancelled. Some 300,000 people were told to leave for home shortly after.
Swan River Plane Crash: Fireworks cancelled.
“It just crashed… the big one,” a person says in the video.
Other social media users began uploading video shortly after the crash.
Emergency crews and water police rushed to the crash site.
It appears the wreckage of the aircraft was just below the water line.
Plane Crashed into Swan River Perth, during Oz Day Celebrations pic.twitter.com/WbIgtt6SQr
— Grant.moffat (@moffat14) January 26, 2017
6PR shared this tweet showing the very moment before the plane hit the Swan River
A plane has crashed into the Swan River before Australia Day skyshow #perthnews pic.twitter.com/ULyOLIk3i5
— 6PR Breakfast (@6PRbreakfast) January 26, 2017
This post updates
We hope the pilot and everyone in the water is okay.
Update: 6.15pm
Skywards cancelled: Channel Ten News Perth and ABC News Perth report the 2017 Skyworks have been cancelled.
Update: 6.25pm
Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi reports two people died in the crash.
URGENT MESSAGE pic.twitter.com/pmvbk12wkq
— Lisa-M Scaffidi (@LisaScafPerthLM) January 26, 2017
Video: The aircraft was part of a video by ‘plane sounds’ just 1-year-ago.
