A newlywed pilot with a child on the way told a witness he was thinking “this is the end” as he crash-landed his light plane at Bankstown Pace way after its engine cut out mid-air on Saturday. The Piper PA28, from an aviation college that operates out of nearby Bankstown Aerodrome, smashed through a fence and partially crushed a parked car about midday — but thankfully no one was injured.
A witnesses said the plane ran the length of the raceway field, bouncing as it went as the pilot tried to steady the aircraft’s wings, before it crashed into the fence. Its left landing gear wheel broke through the rear window of the Mazda, with the combined impact of plane and fence partially caving in the car’s rear window chassis. A part of the plane’s left wing ended up 10m behind the plane, with marks on a light pole nearby which it presumably clipped.
