A builder and and his wife were heading to the Bathurst 1000 when their light aircraft crashed and burst into flames shortly after take-off.
Emergency services rushed to the Shellharbour Airport in NSW’s Illawarra region after the aircraft plummeted to the ground and crashed on the tarmac at about 10am on Saturday.
The single-engine Piper Saratoga plane caught fire upon impact and all three people on board were killed, including local builder Andrew Connors and his wife Julieanne.
The couple have run Connors Building for more than three decades and have been described by shocked friends and neighbours as a ‘beautiful family’ who were friendly and generous and fun loving.
The couple leave behind two children.
The Connors and a family friend were on their way to the annual Bathurst 1000 car race in central-west NSW when tragedy struck.
‘When young people die like that it’s very sad, they were very good people,’ a neighbour told the Daily Telegraph.
‘(Andrew) loved flying, it was his hobby.’
Andrew Connors and his wife Julieanne were among three people killed in a fiery aircraft crash seconds after take-off
Andrew and Julieanne Connors have been described as generous and fun loving
The plane (pictured) caught fire shortly after crashing, and was extinguished by firefighters
Photos from the scene show debris from the destroyed aircraft scattered across the runway.
Lake Illawarra chief inspector Aaron Wunderlich said that a ‘gruesome’ scene confronted emergency responders.
‘The plane has taken off on the tarmac and gone about 30 meters into the air. At that point, witnesses (said) the aircraft dipped with its left wing coming down and it contacted the tarmac,’ Inspector Wunderlich said.
‘Unfortunately, the plane was engulfed.
‘The crime scene will be in place for some period of time.’
Firefighters arrived at the scene ‘within minutes’ of the crash.
‘It was a pretty intense fire from what I’ve heard, and there was no chance of surviving that kind of impact,’ Fire and Rescue NSW Inspector Andrew Barber said.
‘It did disintegrate upon impact with the ground. One wing came off completely.’
Three people have died after a light plane crash-landed after taking off at Shellharbour Airport
Dozens of first responders arrived on the scene, shortly after 10am on Saturday morning
Dozens of emergency responders rushed to the scene
Among the emergency responders were members of NSW Rural Fire Service, who had been on the tarmac for a training exercise at the time and witnessed the crash.
Locals and motorists feared the worst as soon as they spotted the smoke billowing from the scene.
‘It kept turning and then it was back over the other runway, hit the runway and burst into flames,’ one local told Nine News.
Another added: ‘I was just driving down the highway and a massive plume of smoke came up over the buildings and I knew it was at the runway.’
NSW Police and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) have launched separate investigations.
Shellharbour Airport had been hosting a special event, showing aircraft from the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS), which has a museum at Albion Park.
The crash is not connected to the nearby event.
