Almost 48 hours after it vanished on Monday, rescue helicopters today spotted a glimpse of red and then saw the wreckage of the 1934 DH84 De Havilland Dragon in dense forest near the Borumba Dam, south of Gympie.
After landing nearby and walking 200 metres to the crash site, 14km northwest of the dam wall, a team of paramedics and doctors established there were no survivors.
Australian Maritime Safety Authority spokesman Mike Barton said it was “a high impact” crash site.
“The plane is not in a condition that you would recognise,” he told reporters.
Mr Barton said it was apparent the plane was travelling fast when it crashed on Monday and hit the ground hard. He said it was too early to tell what caused the crash.
“They have hit the ground exceedingly hard and the aircraft is fundamentally destroyed.”
Formal identification may take up to two days, but police yesterday identified those on board as veteran pilot Des Porter, 68, his wife Kath Porter, 61, and their friends John and Carol Dawson, both 63, and Les and Janice D'Evlin, aged 74 and 61 respectively.
Their next of kin have been notified.
The discovery of the wreckage ended an intensive search which by early this afternoon involved up to 16 helicopters and which extended nearly 600 square nautical miles west from Gympie and south to Maleny.
Inspectors from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau are heading to the scene to determine the cause of the accident.
The recovery effort is expected to take some time, given the crash site is in a remote and heavily wooded area.
The crash is Australia's worst since 15 people died in the Lockhart River air disaster on Cape York Peninsula in May 2005.
The biplane disappeared while flying from Monto to Caboolture, in south-east Queensland, on Monday afternoon.
Mr Porter had called for help and activated a distress beacon.
Before contact was lost, he told air traffic controllers he had flown into clouds, didn't know his location and needed help.
Mr Barton said he personally knew Mr Barton and the discovery was a blow for everyone who knew the veteran pilot and his five passengers.
“It was always our hope today that we'd find this site, and we'd find survivors, but that is not the case.”
Mr Barton said the antique plane community would miss Mr Porter deeply, and he felt deeply for the family and friends of all six people who perished.
Mr Porter survived a 1954 crash involving the same model aircraft. The Brisbane Telegraph at the time reported he was flying with his father James and his elder brother Keith, in a plane owned and flown by James.
The plane crashed in Doboy Creek in Brisbane's south. James and Keith died but Mr Porter, who was 11 at the time, was saved from the sinking aircraft by rescuers, who cut a hole in the fuselage and dragged him out.
Wednesday 3 October 2012
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/searchers-find-missing-aircraft-near-south-queensland-dam/story-e6frg6nf-1226487392979
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