A person has been injured after a light aircraft carrying seven people crashed in Broome, more than 2,000 kilometres north of Perth in WA’s Kimberley region.
The plane crashed into shallow water at Roebuck Bay about 11:25am, according to witnesses.Â
Police said one person sustained “minor head injuries”.
They said there were seven people on board — two pilots and five passengers — and no other injuries had been reported.
Seven taken to hospital
However, St John Ambulance said it was taking seven people to Broome Hospital.
“There are no suspected life-threatening injuries,” a spokeswoman said in a statement.
The ABC understands the plane had taken off from Broome Airport shortly before it crashed.
The plane crashed in shallow water in Roebuck Bay. (ABC News: Roslyn Butcher)
Emergency services are at the scene, including marine rescue, police and St John Ambulance, police said.Â
Aviation tracking site flightradar24 shows a Cessna 441 Conquest plane leaving Broome Airport and travelling up to 128 knots (237 kilometres per hour), before it decreases to 93 knots (172 kph) and the data cuts out.
A St John spokeswoman said seven people had been taken to Broome Hospital as a result of the crash. (ABC News: Rachel Jackson)
According to the website, the plane was travelling to Mungalalu Truscott Airport, about 620 kilometres north-east of Broome, and was only in the air for less than three minutes.
There is no flight data after 11:19am.
Satellite imagery shows the area where the plane appears to have crashed as a sparsely populated marshy area on the edge of Roebuck Bay, just across the water from the Broome township.
Plane was ‘dipping quite low’
Witness Alex MacNamara was on the town jetty and described seeing the plane flying low shortly before it disappeared into the mangroves.
“I saw it flying and then dipping quite low, and then I just assumed it had passed over the horizon … it was just a bit past the mangroves,” she said.
“It looked like it was doing a sort of turn on an angle and then it was just dipping quite low.
“It just looked like they [emergency services] were coordinating things from the shore; they had their walkie-talkies and some sort of satellite thing.”
Locals watched the rescue operation taking place at Roebuck Bay from a safe distance. (ABC News: Rachel Jackson)
Local Bili Putra was fishing when he saw someone being winched from the water by a helicopter.
“When we were fishing, we saw the helicopter and then the police came with the boat,” Mr Putra said.
“We were using the phone and then we zoomed in and we saw someone they pulled out from the water.”
Roebuck Bay is fringed by mangroves, and is popular for fishing and baoting. (ABC News: Roslyn Butcher)
Roebuck Bay is a long curve of coast fringed by thick mangroves, popular among locals and tourists for fishing and boating.
Mungalalu Truscott Airport, where the plane was apparently headed, is close to the northernmost tip of Western Australia.
It is used as an oil and gas hub for offshore rigs, with regular flights delivering FIFO workers to the isolated airstrip.
Police said an investigation into the crash was underway.