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| Date: | Wednesday 4 November 2020 |
| Time: | 17:09 LT |
| Type: |  Aquila A210 (AT01) |
| Owner/operator: | Soar Aviation |
| Registration: | VH-OIS |
| MSN: | AT01-250 |
| Engine model: | Rotax 912 S3 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Carcoar, south of Orange Regional Airport, (OAG/YORG) NSW -
 Australia
|
| Phase: | Initial climb |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | Orange-Springhill Airport, NSW (OAG/YORG) |
| Investigating agency: | ATSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
On 4 November 2020, at about 14:30 local time the student pilot and instructor of an Aquila AT01 aircraft, registered VH-OIS, departed Bankstown Airport, Australia on a training flight. The purpose of the flight was a final check for the student pilot prior to conducting a Commercial Pilot (Aeroplane) Licence flight test, planned for later in the month. The flight route consisted of a departure to the west over the Blue Mountains, before turning north‑west to Orange Airport.
Flight tracking data obtained from FlightAware indicated that the aircraft arrived at Orange just prior to 16:00, where circuits were conducted to runway 29 and runway 11 for about 30 minutes. On completion of the circuits, a full-stop landing was performed, and the aircraft was taxied to a parking bay where it remained for about 10 minutes. While parked at the bay, the instructor was observed by a witness to be consulting flight charts.
At about 16:40, the aircraft departed Orange and initially maintained the runway 11 upwind track for about 10 NM (18.5 km) before the track turned south, toward the Coombing Park aeroplane landing area (ALA), near Carcoar. The Coombing Park ALA was 27 km south of Orange and had a 1,200 m long runway consisting of short dry grass, with an east‑west direction (07/25).
On arrival overhead the ALA, two orbits of the airstrip were flown at about 500 feet above ground level. Following the two orbits, the aircraft was flown in a circuit pattern consistent with a touch‑and-go to runway 07. At the point of expected touchdown on runway 07, no further flight data was available, likely due to terrain shielding.
No eyewitnesses observed the aircraft land and subsequently take-off from runway 07 at Coombing Park, although one witness heard the aircraft approaching from that direction. The witness described the aircraft engine as sounding normal prior to the sound fading, consistent with the aircraft flying away. However, after no more than 10 seconds later, at about 17:09, the witness heard the aircraft colliding with terrain.
About 2 hours later, the wreckage was found with both occupants fatally injured and the aircraft destroyed. The aircraft had impacted the bank of a small dam, located on rising terrain about 600 m beyond the end of runway 07 and about 30° to the left of the runway centreline.
Contributing factors
• It is likely that pre-flight planning was not performed to ascertain the take-off area was clear of obstacles at Coombing Park ALA as required by the operations manual. Consequently, this reduced assurance that the pilots would identify and mitigate the risk of rising terrain that the aircraft was unable to outclimb at the end of runway 07.
• The pilots were conducting the precautionary search at heights and positions that would have likely made assessing the hazard of rising terrain from the air less effective. This likely contributed to the pilots’ decision to conduct a touch-and-go landing and take-off toward rising terrain that exceeded the climb performance of the aircraft and required a low-level turn to avoid rising terrain.
• The take-off was conducted on an uphill slope with a probable tailwind and toward rising terrain beyond the runway end. A standing take-off conducted in the more favourable reciprocal direction would likely have cleared all obstacles and terrain.
• The conduct of the touch-and-go, rather than a standing take-off, reduced assurance that the aircraft would commence the climb from a position along the runway that could clear the terrain during the initial climb after take-off.
• The combination of loss in climb performance during the turn, trees and rising terrain in the new direction likely led to the pilots conducting an uphill forced landing. It is likely that the aircraft had insufficient performance for the uphill forced landing, leading to the aircraft colliding with the embankment of a small dam.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
https://www.9news.com.au/national/nsw-two-dead-in-light-plane-crash-central-west-carcoar/117d0cb4-9472-41fa-8905-5e4da73d21f4
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/two-people-have-died-in-a-light-plane-crash-in-central-nsw-20201104-p56bm5.html
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/VHOIS
https://www.casa.gov.au/aircraft-register?search_api_views_fulltext=&vh=Ois&field_ar_serial=
Location
Images:
Photo: ATSB
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 04-Nov-2020 11:02 | gerard57 | Added |
| 04-Nov-2020 17:26 | Geno | Updated [Location, Departure airport, Source, ] |
| 05-Nov-2020 06:38 | Aphexau | Updated [Registration, Cn, Nature, Source, Narrative, ] |
| 05-Nov-2020 06:38 | harro | Updated [Aircraft type, ] |
| 05-Nov-2020 07:34 | Anon. | Updated [Operator, ] |
| 13-Jan-2021 08:09 | harro | Updated [Time, Phase, Narrative, Photo, ] |
| 31-Jul-2024 19:21 | ASN | Updated [Narrative, ] |
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