Paul Smith had about 11,000 hours of flight experience when he died in a plane crash near Moruya earlier this year. Photo: Supplied.
Early investigations into a fatal plane crash earlier this year have raised the question of whether the pilot was trying to leave the aircraft.
On Saturday 27 September, experienced pilot Paul Smith oversaw a series of skydiving jumps from his turboprop Pilatus PC-6, minutes before it crashed.
Following the incident, the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau (ATSB) deployed a team of transport safety investigators from its Canberra and Brisbane offices to the crash site and started an investigation.
Its preliminary report states the skydiving jumps were uneventful and at 2:06 pm Mr Smith radioed that he would be heading back to the airport.
“Several witnesses on the ground then observed the aircraft enter a steep nose-down dive, rotating left before pitching up and rolling right,” ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said.
Emergency services were called to bushland west of George Bass Drive in Moruya (about two kilometres north of Moruya Airport), after witnesses saw the plane crash in bushland.
The aircraft’s last recorded data position was at 7,425 ft, according to the report, and it was descending at about 15,000 feet per minute.
The plane landed nose-down and inverted.
Mr Mitchell said ATSB was investigating Mr Smith’s opportunity to leave the plane before the crash.
“Consideration will be given to survivability aspects, given the pilot was almost certainly not in their seat when the collision occurred, and they were wearing their emergency parachute,” he said.
Mr Smith’s four-point restraint was also undone, the report states.
The investigation is set to examine further the configuration of the aircraft’s doors, its horizontal stabiliser trim system, recorded flight data, pilot training and maintenance records.
Crash investigators believe Mr Smith was ‘almost certainly’ not in his seat at the time of the crash. Image: ATSB.
The preliminary report notes the plane was fitted with a horizontal stabiliser electric trim system, a device that affects the plane’s pitch attitude.
Following the crash, investigators found this was in the fully nose-down position.
There were also no indications of the plane breaking up in flight and no indications of mechanical anomalies that would have affected normal engine operation.
ATSB’s report states the plane was manufactured in Switzerland in 1980 and had been used for skydiving jumps in New Zealand since 1982.
Shortly before Mr Smith brought the plane over to Australia, it also underwent a “‘complete overhaul’ maintenance activity”, and a certificate of airworthiness was issued in September 2025.
The investigation is ongoing and a final report will be released at its conclusion.
Original Article published by Claire Sams on About Regional.
