Aircraft VH-UXG

Aircraft VH-UXG - de Havilland DH-84 Dragon II

Sadly, this magnificent old aircraft is missing, presumed lost. At about 2 pm yesterday Australian Eastern Time, the owner and pilot reported that he was lost in cloud over hilly wooded country, and was running low on fuel. He was on a flight from Monto in Queensland to Caboolture after conducting charity joy flights in the aircraft at a fly-in day. He was returning to his home base with five passengers. His EPERB was activated for a short time, but is now silent. Weather has been less than conducive to searching, but a large number of helicopters and a fixed wing aircraft have been searching yesterday afternoon and today without success.

There is an intriguing story with this aircraft. The pilot survived a crash in the plane when he was 11 years old. His father and brother were killed in the accident. Years later he located the remains of the aircraft and rebuilt it to pristine condition. It has been a familiar sight at airshows around Australia.

Here is a link to a video of the aircraft taken in 2010.

http://youtu.be/onlM7VXW2Qw

Incidentally, there are two profiles of this aircraft in the database.

I will post an update when the missing aircraft is located.

Regards,

Peter.

Our worst fears were confirmed at 14 today when it was reported that one of the 15 searching helicopters had located a high impact crash site in bushland. The helicopter had to land 200 metres from the site and medical personnel hiked up to the crash site. It has been confirmed that all six occupants are deceased.

Condolences to the relatives of the deceased.

Regards,

Peter.