onetrack

Skippy, the comment was abusive, frustration is not an excuse. If a user can't be civil to other forum users, they've worn out their welcome. It's not hard. Both Facthunter and Turbo are "senior citizens", and they both have very extensive levels of experience, skills and knowledge, gained over 60 or more years, that they sharely freely. But some "young bucks" seem to think it's O.K. to abuse and denigrate them, when they don't agree with their statements. We can agree to disagree, without becoming disagreeable.

I've seen some arrogant and ignorant forum users before, but this bloke takes the cake. Straight-out abusive personal attacks gets you booted from any forum.

Only on some witnesses visual/aural reports. The investigation might find a different result. What would interest me is the drift to the left before the Pilatus was reaching V1. That seems to indicate a control problem, it's not like there was a strong crosswind. The fuel reserve scenario is interesting, not a lot of fuel reserve there after a couple of quick trips up and back. QUOTE: Anomaly During Takeoff Roll: Before reaching V₁ (takeoff decision speed), ADS-B tracking indicated that the aircraft began to drift slightly to the left. Loss of Control: Immediately after passing the runway threshold, the aircraft entered an uncommanded left-hand turn, plummeting into a nearly vertical descent before crashing onto a bikepath and road just outside the airport perimeter.

A Pilatus PC-6 skyding aircraft has crashed just after takeoff in France, with all 11 on board (5 parachutists, 5 instructors and the pilot) fatally injured. The aircraft crashed onto a bikepath very close to the airstrip it had just taken off from. There were no injuries or fatalities on the ground, despite the area where the aircraft crashed being a built-up area. The 5 parachutists were all local nurses doing their ab initio jumps, and were harnessed to instructors for tandem jumping. The aircraft involved was built in 1991, so it was 35 years old. This crash must raise concerns over any potential similarity to the Pilatus PC-6 skydiving aircraft crash at Moruya in Sept 2025. https://simpleflying.com/pilatus-pc-6-skydiving-plane-crash-france/ https://www.atsb.gov.au/news/2025/moruya-skydiving-flight-accident-preliminary-report

That's an unbelievably steep bank. It must be a rotated photo, surely? The cloud result might have been due to a highly defined layer of very moist air?

90% of Farcebook is fake. Why does the aircraft have "CESSNA" in big letters on the fuselage, instead of a VH rego? No emergency outlanding on a road has been recorded around St Arnaud in recent times.

It's going to worry the Chinese Govt a whole lot more. The aircraft was a two-seat Sunward SA 60L Aurora, rego B-12PP, and it was piloted. The building is identified as "the CITIC building, and CITIC is one of China's biggest corporations. The pilot appears to have been one Liu Junhua, a managerial-level employee of China CITIC Bank. The pilot was killed and 13 people inside the building are reported as being injured. I'd have to opine it's a classic case of a disgruntled employee taking out a suicide "revenge", for some kind of perceived company mistreatment, along the lines of the Connellan Airways murderer in Alice Springs in 1977. https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/small-plane-crashes-into-beijing-s-tallest-building-20260626-p60aj9.html

Skippy's analysis looks pretty good - a flat spin with minimal forward speed. Note the fence just a few metres behind the aircraft is virtually undamaged. If the aircraft had been travelling with substantial forward speed, I'd have expected the fence to be seriously damaged. There are a couple of local witnesses who sighted the Spitfire with "unusually low" altitude, and they called emergency services almost immediately they suspected the aircraft had gone down. The Channel 7 News item on Youtube is refreshingly accurate and lacks the regular journalistic claptrap - although they still call the Spitfire "home-built", seriously detracting from the intensive engineering skills involved. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44RvUgKO37

Skippy, taking off towards the S/SE from Northam and turning left, as he did, means flying into rapidly-rising terrain at Malabaine. He impacted into a rocky ridge in an elevated paddock above the Northam airstrip, which is located in a valley alongside the Mortlock River. The airstrip is at 153M (502') elevation, but within 3kms of the airstrip, the ridges rise to the East, in a N-S line, to over 240M (787'). If he encountered engine failure at relatively low altitude and relatively low airspeed, he could have developed a stall, and the rising terrain would have made recovery more difficult. I am a little surprised that no-one heard or saw anything. Perhaps a witness or two may come forward in the ATSB investigation and request for witnesses. https://en-au.topographic-map.com/map-mz3pz4/Shire-Of-Northam/?center=-31.6471%2C116.75308&zoom=13

I bet every emergency response team within 100kms raced to the scene to see if there was any help needed. 😄

The pilot has been identified as the aircraft owner/builder, Malcolm Vivian. He was also a TC-certified inspector for amateur builds. I'm personally inclined to suspect mechanical failure, but that's just speculation. The ATSB will report soon enough, and they have plenty of wreckage to examine. The lack of a post crash fire is interesting - one would think, crashing just 3 mins after takeoff, that there would be a fire of some kind. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-25/wa-pilot-malcolm-vivian-killed-in-plane-crash-near-northam/106838796

The worrying part would be - what goes out that open door! Important stuff from inside a cockpit, going byes-byes into the slipstream, could be more than just embarrassing. Things like logbooks, expensive electronic devices, etc. Not tied down, they are candidates for being sucked out.

He didn't get very far from the Northam airstrip, Malabaine is only a few kms NE of Northam. The registered owner of the crashed Spitfire replica, VH-SFX, formerly owned a Vans RV-7A, VH-MXE. Today was a beautiful day, fine and sunny, almost clear sky, just a light NE wind, temp at the time of the crash, around 17°C. I was in the Wheatbelt all day today, just 60kms N of the crash site. One can only speculate on the cause of the crash - but the replica Spitfires are known to stall viciously if airspeed decays. The 6.2L Chev engine has to be a big suspect here, they're responsible for a number of replica aircraft crashes. RIP, keen aviator friend. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=955593876859985&set=a.176502604769120

Not to my knowledge. You just have to pick up "mentions" on the 'net. It would take a lof of effort and co-operation, to compile a comprehensive record.

RAAus began issuing their "19-" registration prefix for amateur-built and experimental kit aircraft in 1999. The very first aircraft officially designated under this amateur-built category was a Sapphire (registration number 19-3099), which was built and flown in February of that year.