A major search is continuing on Wednesday after a small plane crashed into waters off Groote Eylandt, with police divers joining air and sea crews in the hunt for the pilot.<\/p>\n
Northern Territory Police restarted the operation at 6.30am after it was suspended about 9pm on Tuesday following the crash near Isle Woodah, about 50km northwest of Alyangula.<\/p>\n
The alarm was raised about 11.40am on Wednesday when a witness on board a vessel in the area reported the \u201caircraft had crashed into the water near Isle Woodah\u201d.<\/p>\n
The search now stretches across the water and sky, with police boats, ranger crews, a helicopter and a police plane involved.<\/p>\n
Police divers have also been sent to Groote Eylandt to search the sea floor near the crash site, where they will work to locate and recover aircraft debris and other evidence that may help investigators establish what happened.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday afternoon, charter company Air Frontier confirmed one of its Beechcraft Baron aircraft \u201cwas involved in an accident near Numbulwar\u201d around midday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe aircraft was undertaking a non-commercial repositioning flight with no passengers from Gove to Numbulwar, with the pilot believed to be the sole occupant on board,\u201d Air Frontier said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Air Frontier said it was \u201cdeeply saddened by this accident\u201d and its thoughts were with the pilot and their family.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe family has been contacted, and we are supporting them as this situation unfolds,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n
The company also confirmed all of its Beechcraft Baron aircraft had been grounded \u201cas a precautionary measure\u201d, pending advice from relevant authorities.<\/p>\n
Search Mission Coordinator Acting Sergeant Nathan Conelius said police remained focused on locating the pilot and supporting those affected by the crash.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the pilot,\u201d Sergant Conelius said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur focus remains locating the pilot of the aircraft and alongside our partner agencies, we will continue search efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A major search is continuing on Wednesday after a small plane crashed into waters off Groote Eylandt, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[127118,37580,118615,50162,127117,127115,127089,127109,127101,127108,79280,41743,127113,40351,127114,127094,127110,127093,127091,74320,22,21,20839,102487,127103,6663,127095,33912,124271,127105,36671,124270,127096,127111,127106,55475,379,70428,25397,127098,43370,38833,96219,63735,127102,2715,1988,1047,127107,28331,127112,127090,127104,1057,127092,127100,41592,36643,36759,41672,52328,36700,25646,42764,38808,41589,127099,36692,63748,37514,127097,39611,127116,56614,36985,71788,22441],"class_list":["post-80879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-11-40am","tag-6-30am","tag-9pm","tag-a-helicopter","tag-a-major-search","tag-a-non-commercial-repositioning-flight","tag-a-police-plane","tag-a-precautionary-measure","tag-a-small-plane","tag-a-statement-air-frontier","tag-a-vessel","tag-a-witness","tag-about-50km","tag-afternoon","tag-air-and-sea-crews","tag-air-frontier","tag-air-frontier-plane","tag-aircraft-debris","tag-alyangula-the-alarm","tag-an-accident","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-board","tag-carpentaria","tag-charter-company-air-frontier","tag-company","tag-divers","tag-gove","tag-groote-eylandt","tag-happened-on","tag-investigators","tag-isle-woodah","tag-its-beechcraft-baron-aircraft","tag-its-thoughts","tag-major-search","tag-midday","tag-newswire-news","tag-no-passengers","tag-northern-territory-police","tag-numbulwar","tag-other-evidence","tag-our-focus","tag-our-partner-agencies","tag-our-thoughts","tag-pending-advice","tag-pilot","tag-plane-crash","tag-police","tag-police-boats","tag-police-divers","tag-ranger-crews","tag-relevant-authorities-search-mission-coordinator-acting-sergeant-nathan-conelius","tag-remote-waters","tag-search","tag-search-efforts","tag-sergant-conelius","tag-the-aircraft","tag-the-area","tag-the-company","tag-the-crash","tag-the-crash-site","tag-the-family","tag-the-gulf","tag-the-hunt","tag-the-operation","tag-the-pilot","tag-the-sea-floor","tag-the-search","tag-the-sole-occupant","tag-the-water","tag-the-water-and-sky","tag-their-family","tag-this-accident","tag-this-situation","tag-tuesday","tag-waters","tag-wednesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}