Body found in search for missing pilot who crashed in Snowy Mountains

News.com.au

2 days ago

The body of a man has been found in the wreckage of a plane that went missing in the Snowy Mountains earlier this week.
The body was located at the crash site just before 3pm on Friday, and police believe it is the remains of pilot David Stephens.
'While he is yet to be formally identified, police believe the body is that of the missing pilot,' NSW police said in a statement.
The body is expected to be recovered from the crash site later Friday afternoon and a report will be prepared for the coroner.
Earlier on Friday police conceded it was 'fairly clear' Mr Stephens had not survived the impact.
The 74-year-old, an experienced pilot from Bega, was flying the 1966 Beechcraft Debonair plane from Wangaratta in Victoria to Moruya Airport on the NSW South Coast on Tuesday when he lost contact.
NSW Police confirmed the plane's wreckage was found about 4pm on Thursday, with a rescue helicopter locating 'what is believed to be the crashed plane near the plane's last known GPS location'.
Speaking on Friday, Superintendent Andrew Spliet said crews were still working to find the cause of the crash and the pilot's whereabouts.
He told reporters the impact of the crash was significant and it was 'fairly clear that wouldn't be survivable'.
The pilot's body has not been located.
Superintendent Spliet said the impact of the crash was so severe 'you wouldn't recognise it as a plane'.
'Obviously, (there was) a fair bit of speed into the mountain range there, which has completely destroyed that aircraft,' he said.
'And as I said, it wouldn't be a survivable collision.'
He explained the conditions in the Snowy Mountains were 'very difficult' for the emergency crews to access, with lots of snow and a 'very steep' terrain.
'It was a lot of very steep, overgrown terrain up there, so it was difficult to locate initially and also due to those weather conditions,' Superintendent Spliet said.
'But when that cleared, we were able to get those air assets over the co-ordinates that we've been provided, and that's when the crash site was identified.'
He said an investigation into the crash would determine if the weather played a role.
'Obviously, that evening … the weather conditions were fairly unpleasant and not very good for search and the air assets in the air at the time,' he said.
'I would say that (the weather conditions) weren't ideal.'
Mr Stephens' wife Lynda Leigh told the ABC that he was an experienced pilot and only two months from retiring. He had been on his way home when he disappeared.
'It is known that the mountain weather can turn very quickly, and we can only assume he must have seen a way over the mountain to decide not to turn back to Wangaratta,' she said.
'David has quite a bit of experience flying that plane, but we can't know what situation he was facing, and we'll only have answers once they locate the plane and with that David.'
Friend and Frog's Hollow Flyers aero club president Tony Radcliffe told 9News that Mr Stephens was a 'very capable' pilot, though Mr Radcliffe was worried about the conditions Mr Stephens faced.
'We call it tiger country, anywhere that's difficult to make a forced landing,' he told the outlet.
'We're all aware of the different possibilities in flying light aircraft. David's very capable and very experienced to be flying the length that he has.'