Pilot identified as Greg Ackman, 73
Updated ,first published
A pilot of nearly 50 years has been identified as one of the men killed in a massive fire that took hours to bring under control when a light plane crashed just after takeoff south of Brisbane.
Emergency services were called just before 6am on Tuesday to reports that a plane had crash-landed at Heck Field, an airstrip within the Gold Coast Sports Flying Club at Jacobs Well, and skidded off the end of the runway.
Pilot Greg Ackman, 73, from Beenleigh, and his passenger from Sydney were removed from the plane, with ambulance, police and fire crews arriving at the scene about 55 kilometers south of Brisbane.
A friend of Ackman told Nine News Queensland he had been flying since he was a teenager and owned several planes; all of these had distinctive red noses.
Police Inspector Brett Jackson said CCTV footage of the crash recorded at the airstrip would form part of the investigation.
Heck Field is a private airport where people rent hangars and fly private flights, he said.
The flight plan submitted to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority stated that the plane was heading to a town near Tamworth in north-eastern NSW.
Fire crews said that the plane stopped in the bushes at the end of the runway and a cloud of smoke rose from the plane.
Cane fields and pastures caught fire, trapping Ackman and his passenger in the cockpit.
In addition to SES personnel, many fire brigades responded to the fire with a total of 50 police officers. The fire was brought under control at 4.45pm and emergency crews were still monitoring the scene and treating back burns at 7.30pm, nearly 14 hours after the crash.
“We’re surrounded by reed paddocks and small bushes. The ground here is quite wet and muddy, and we also have an estuary around here,” Jackson said.
Deputy fire chief Joel Gordon noted that some flames reached six meters high.
“Conditions today are not very good for suppressing fires, and we’re seeing that in the fire behavior over the last few hours,” he said.
Smoke from the fire affected people in the area, including schools.
The 100-metre-wide wall of fire, burning in the north and inaccessible due to wet terrain, was fueled by winds of up to 30 kilometers per hour.
Gold Coast Sport Flying Club is located on Stapylton Jacobs Well Road, on the site of a former cane field that was converted into a runway in the late 1980s.
The airport was the shooting location of many movies; san andreas And Dora and the Lost City of Gold.
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Cloe Read is the Brisbane Times’ crime and courts reporter.Connect with: X or email.
