A preliminary report has found the pilot of a light plane which crashed into a ferris wheel on the mid north coast, was trained at a facility that apparently didn’t exist.
The 53-year-old and his 32-year-old passenger ploughed into the ride at Old Bar last month, after aborting a landing at a nearby airstrip.
A brother and sister, aged 10 and 13, were trapped in one of the wheel’s carriages just metres away, and miraculously escaped uninjured.
The interim report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau noted the training facility named by the pilot did not exist under the listing of approved facilities at the time he received his certificate.
It could be up to a year before the final report is released.
