Wednesday, October 3, 2012

vintage De Havilland Dragon airplane still missing in Australia

This is quite sad... our best wishes to the search crews.  From telegraph.co.uk :


The rare De Havilland DH84 Dragon – reportedly one of only four in the world – was returning from an air show and has been missing since Monday, when it activated an emergency beacon after flying through heavy low-hanging cloud.

Fifteen helicopters and a fixed-wing rescue craft have been scouring a vast area of rural Queensland around the Sunshine Coast but have spotted no trace of the red plane.

The plane’s pilot, Des Porter, 68, reportedly built it from parts of a De Havilland plane that crashed almost 60 years ago. Mr Porter, an experienced pilot with more than 3,000 landings, was flying with his wife and four other passengers, all of whom are understood to be from Queensland.

Authorities said wet weather had hampered the search but they will not begin a ground search until they find some sign of the plane.

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