{"id":463948,"date":"2026-02-07T07:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T07:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/463948\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T07:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T07:26:16","slug":"pilot-teens-dead-after-light-plane-crashes-into-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/463948\/","title":{"rendered":"Pilot, teens dead after light plane crashes into ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three men, two of them teenagers, have died after their light plane crashed into the ocean in front of horrified onlookers at a popular fishing spot.<\/p>\n

Authorities said the single-engine Cessna 210 nosedived into the water while rolling, several hundred metres offshore in Long Bay, some 85km south of Adelaide, about 4.30pm on Friday.<\/p>\n

The pilot, a 57-year-old man from Morphett Vale, and his two passengers, aged 18 and 19, were found deceased.<\/p>\n

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigating the cause of the crash and has appealed for anyone with footage to come forward.<\/p>\n

\"Light<\/p>\n

The plane’s 57-year-old pilot and two teenage passengers were found deceased. (AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Acting Chief Commissioner Colin McNamara said viewing the video recordings of the accident would be crucial.<\/p>\n

“In the footage, the aircraft has come down into water while rolling to the left in a very steep nose-down trajectory a couple of 100 metres offshore,” he told reporters on Saturday.<\/p>\n

“Understanding the sequence of events leading up to the aircraft entering that trajectory will be of central importance.”<\/p>\n

Investigators will also interview witnesses and involved parties and collect any recorded flight tracking data.<\/p>\n

Any aircraft components of interest will be recovered to the bureau’s Canberra technical facilities for further examination.<\/p>\n

Rough seas hampered efforts to retrieve the wreckage, with a police helicopter, firefighters, SES and private sea operators involved in the operation.<\/p>\n

A resident of nearby Goolwa told the ABC Radio Adelaide the scene near the crash was “chaos”.<\/p>\n

Police officer Senior Constable Rebecca Stokes described the crash as “tragic news for three families in South Australia today”.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

The ATSB is appealing for anyone with footage of a plane crash near Adelaide to come forward. (Mick Tsikas\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

The crash site is a remote beach but a popular fishing spot where the Murray River meets the Southern Ocean.<\/p>\n

Police will prepare a report for the coroner while a preliminary ATSB report was expected to take about two months to complete, Mr McNamara said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, floodwaters are hampering attempts to reach the scene of a light plane crash near Normanton in Queensland’s Gulf Country.<\/p>\n

Emergency services were called to the scene after the aircraft went down 800m west of Normanton airport about 8pm on Friday.<\/p>\n

The pilot is believed to have been the only person on board but police and ambulance services were still trying to gain access to the crash site on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The ATSB has been informed and will investigate the cause of the crash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three men, two of them teenagers, have died after their light plane crashed into the ocean in front…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[184905,64,63,237841,44,57805,237840,237839],"class_list":{"0":"post-463948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-aap-photos","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-morphett-vale","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-plane-crash","14":"tag-plane-crashed","15":"tag-the-australian-transport-safety-bureau"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}