{"id":888983,"date":"2026-06-24T07:39:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T07:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/888983\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T07:39:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T07:39:27","slug":"pilot-dies-in-light-plane-crash-in-malabaine-near-northam-north-east-of-perth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/888983\/","title":{"rendered":"Pilot dies in light plane crash in Malabaine near Northam, north-east of Perth"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 76-year-old man <\/strong>has died in a rural light plane crash near Northam, north-east of Perth.<\/p>\n

Emergency services responded to reports of a plane crash in the small rural locality of Malabaine, more than 90 kilometres from Perth, about 10:50am.<\/p>\n

WA Police said the pilot, the sole occupant of the aircraft, was found by emergency services and declared dead at the scene.<\/p>\n

\"Aerials<\/p>\n

Police officers assess the plane wreckage. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

A report will be prepared for the coroner.<\/p>\n

Aerial footage from Wednesday afternoon showed several police officers assessing the crash site, while a red firefighting vehicle was parked nearby.<\/p>\n

There was significant damage to the front of the plane and debris on the ground, while parts of the aircraft were covered in green sheets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The wings were also damaged, with some parts crumpled.<\/p>\n

The site appears to be near bushland off Great Eastern Highway\u00a0in a remote field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

At least three police vehicles and additional emergency services are seen by the crash site. (ABC News: Sam Goerling)<\/p>\n

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services said three crews were dispatched and one remained on site on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Investigators deployed from Canberra<\/p>\n

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) will investigate the crash.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell described the plane as “an amateur-built replica Spitfire aircraft”, and said specialist staff were being sent from Canberra.<\/p>\n

\"Aerials<\/p>\n

Police say the plane is a light aircraft and the pilot was the sole occupant. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“The ATSB has deployed a team of transport safety investigators from its Canberra offices, specialising in aircraft maintenance and engineering, and materials analysis,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“They will arrive on site on Thursday, and over coming days will conduct a range of evidence-gathering activities, including site and wreckage examination, and recovery of any aircraft components of interest for further examination at the ATSB\u2019s technical facilities in Canberra.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Angus Mitchell says a specialist team is being deployed from Canberra. (ABC News: Grace Burmas)<\/p>\n

Chief Commissioner Mitchell said investigators would interview witnesses and collect relevant data and weather information, with a preliminary report expected to be published in roughly eight weeks.<\/p>\n

The ATSB has asked anyone with video footage to contact them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 76-year-old man has died in a rural light plane crash near Northam, north-east of Perth. Emergency services…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":888984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,50,360516,360518,8631,5884,152534,360519,360520,8632,360517],"class_list":["post-888983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-northam","tag-northam-plane-crash","tag-perth-news","tag-plane-crash","tag-small-plane-crash","tag-spitfire","tag-spitfire-crash","tag-wa-news","tag-wa-plane-crash"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116803952728392334","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}