Police investigating a plane crash in the Gulf of Carpentaria have confirmed “no aircraft wreckage or persons have been located” yet, despite hours-long search efforts.<\/p>\n
Charter company Air Frontier later released a statement confirming its Beechcraft Baron aircraft “was involved in an accident near Numbulwar” around midday.<\/p>\n
According to Air Frontier, the aircraft was undertaking a “non-commercial repositioning flight” from Gove to Numbulwar with the pilot believed to be the sole occupant on board.<\/p>\n
Mr Bramley circumnavigated Australia<\/a> in a small plane as a 16-year-old in 2019 to raise awareness about youth suicide<\/a>.<\/p>\n He also founded the youth mental health and suicide prevention initiative Surviving Turbulence.<\/p>\n In a statement, his family said they could not “comprehend this great loss in our lives”.<\/p>\n As a teenager, Tasmanian pilot Bob Bramley circumnavigated Australia by himself. (ABC News: Manika Dadson)<\/p>\n “There are no words, deeds or silver linings that make this any easier, but our beloved Bob is gone,” the statement said.<\/p>\n “Bob was a courageous individual, who inspired those around him with his infectious enthusiasm.<\/p>\n “He was a dreamer, who never let fear, problems or pessimists stop him from reaching his goals.”<\/p>\n Debris located on Wednesday<\/p>\n The search mission coordinator, Acting Sergeant Nathan Conelius, said crews had managed to locate “aircraft debris” in the search area on Wednesday.<\/p>\n “That’s helped refine our search planning so we’re more hopeful today of finding something else,” he said.<\/p>\n Acting sergeant Cornelius said the remote search location, which is roughly 50 kilometres north-west of Alyangula, has made the operation particularly challenging.<\/p>\n “There’s no accurate weather data out there which is adding a lot of complexity to the search,” he said.<\/p>\n “We’re finding that sea and the weather conditions in the search area are much worse than what we’re seeing online so we’re relying on the limited communication we have.”<\/p>\n Loading…<\/p>\n He said the location has also prevented additional crew members from being able to access the site.<\/p>\n “Because it’s so remote we’re not able to get any more people in there,” he said.<\/p>\n “We just don’t have the assets available.”<\/p>\n Police resources have been assisted by Anindilyakwa sea rangers and helicopter support from Nautilus Aviation with search and rescue crews also on the ground in Alyangula.<\/p>\n Acting Sergeant Cornelius said police divers would conduct searches of the sea floor throughout Thursday.<\/p>\n Anindilyakwa sea rangers are assisting with the search effort. (ABC News: Hamish Harty)<\/p>\n ‘Incredibly difficult’ time for pilot’s family<\/p>\n Acting Sergeant Cornelius said police have been in contact with Mr Bramley’s family.<\/p>\n In a statement earlier this week, Air Frontier said they were “deeply saddened” by news of the incident.<\/p>\n “Our thoughts are with our pilot and their family at this incredibly difficult time,” the statement said.<\/p>\n “The family has been contacted, and we are supporting them as this situation unfolds.<\/p>\n “As is standard process, the cause of the accident will be a matter for the investigating authorities, and it would be inappropriate to speculate at this time.”<\/p>\n Air Frontier said all of its Beechcraft Baron aircraft had been grounded “as a precautionary measure”, pending advice from relevant authorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pilot believed to have died when their aircraft crashed into remote waters off the Northern Territory coast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[127094,128187,22,21,128188,124271,8432,3339,9766,20488,31365,128189,5951,5247],"class_list":["post-81415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-air-frontier","tag-angurugu","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-bob-bramley","tag-groote-eylandt","tag-gulf-of-carpentaria","tag-nt","tag-nt-police","tag-search-and-rescue","tag-small-plane-crash","tag-surviving-turbulence","tag-tas","tag-tasmania"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81415","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=81415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/02ee480801b782773ac4c790fbfd2716.jpeg\")
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