SA Police say three people have died after a light plane crash south of Adelaide yesterday afternoon.
Police were called to the Long Bay area near Goolwa South about 4:20pm on Friday afternoon after reports of a light plane crashing into the ocean.
The pilot, a a 57-year-old Morphett Vale man, and two passengers, an 18-year-old Freeling man and a 19-year-old Pasadena man, were all located deceased, police said.
A Surf Life Saving boat on Friday evening. (ABC News: Caroline Horn)
Senior Constable Rebecca Stokes told ABC Radio Adelaide that police will prepare a report for the coroner.
“The wreckage of that single engine Cessna 210 aircraft has been brought into shore near the Murray Mouth,” she said.
“Tragic news for three families in South Australia today.”
Investigators from the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau (ATSB) will attend the scene today and have launched a safety investigation into the incident.
ABC reporter Caroline Horn is at Goolwa Beach, around 12 kilometres from the crash site, and said police worked into the night to search the area.
“Police divers entered the water just before dark and undertook that search and at about 2:30 this morning a helicopter was called to the area,” she said.
Emergency services near the Goolwa Barrage on Friday evening. (ABC News: Caroline Horn)
“It is quite remote but there were people fishing in the area, it’s a very popular fishing spot because it’s where the mouth of the Murray River runs out.”
Milang local Sam Rohloff said he was fishing near the Murray Mouth when he saw the plane begin to spiral.
“We thought you know how they spiral and usually pull back up, but this thing was coming down pretty hard, it just spiralled out of control and smashed straight into the water,” Mr Rohloff said.
Sam Rohloff says he was fishing when he witnessed the plane crash. (Supplied: Gary Juleff)
“It was a couple of hundred metres off shore … It was pretty much like an explosion, massive waves everywhere.”
Mr Rohloff said he immediately called emergency services.
“I just grabbed my phone straight away and got onto Triple Zero,” he said.