Specialist investigators have been sent to the Hunter to help police determine the cause of a plane crash that killed a man in wine country on Saturday.
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Peter Brown, a 57-year-old Blackhalls Park man, died when his light plane crashed into a paddock at Lovedale on Saturday, soon after it left Cessnock Airport.
Police removed the remains of the plane from the crash site yesterday.
The plane crashed about 10m from the side of Lovedale Road, about 30m from Lovedale Store where about 60 people were having lunch at the time.
Café owner Paul Brazier told the Mercury that the crash made an extremely loud bang but witnesses had not heard the sound of plane engines before the incident.
He said Mr Brown had died by the time witnesses had made their way from the cafe to the crash site.
Mr Brazier said his emergency parachute had not been deployed.
“We heard an almighty crash and we all knew something was up but we couldn’t see anything,” he said.
“Then one of the customers, who was a pilot, went over then came back and told us there was a plane and a body.
“The plane literally fell out of the sky, that’s why we didn’t hear it falling.
“It was a shock. It was probably the loudest bang I have ever heard in my life but not a single customer heard any engines.”
Recreational Aviation Australia CEO Michael Linke said that two investigators had joined Central Hunter police at the crash site on Sunday.
He said the special investigators would prepare a report to help police determine how the crash occurred.
“We look at three factors: mechanical, environmental and human,” Mr Linke said.
Saturday’s incident is the second light plane crash in the area in six months. Two men suffered non-life threatening injuries when their vintage aircraft crashed through a fence at Luskintyre in November.
