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11 September, 2024

NSW South Coast surfers in narrow escape after plane door plummets into the sea

Edited by Travel Weekly

Local surfers and a fisherman had a narrow escape after a plane door plummeted into the sea off a Far South Coast beach, landing just metres from the fisherman.

It was “a crazy situation to witness” one of the surfers at South Broulee told the ABC.

“It looked like it was coming straight towards the surf,” said Murphy Shaw who was enjoying his morning surf when the small aircraft flying overhead lost its door.

When the surfers realised the door was heading towards the fisherman on the beach they attempted to alert him.

“Everyone in the water tried to get the attention of this bloke who was fishing because it became pretty evident that we could witness something pretty horrible … we nearly did,” Shaw said.

Shaw said the door land in scrub, about 20 metres from the fisherman, but despite a “big bang”, he appeared “not fazed at all”.

“He just went about his business – cool as a cucumber, really,” Shaw said.

Broulee resident Josh Waterson said he heard the hum of the plane flying overhead last Friday morning.

“Then the noise [of the plane] actually stopped – and that’s what caught my attention, that instant change in pitch,” he said.

He looked up to see the door flying through the air, knowing his daughter had just left for a swim at the beach.

“I called her and said, ‘Watch out … there’s a door coming’,” he said. The door hit the beach about 50 metres away from her.

“I think we’re just really lucky that the door landed on the beach and no one got hurt,” he said.

The door came loose from an American RV-10 four-seater plane with the pilot and passenger landing safely at Moruya soon after the incident. Soon after the door landed it was carried away with the ABC reporting it was returned to the airport.

An American RV-10 four-seater.

“Five minutes later, someone had picked up the door and was walking out of the beach, carrying it over their head, almost like an old longboard,” surfer Shaw said. “It was a crazy situation to witness.”

Eurobodalla Shire Council told the ABC in a statement that the pilot told airport staff “the door latch was not secured properly”.

“[The pilot] apologised for any anxiety the incident may have caused,” the statement read.

The pilot declined a request for comment.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau told the ABC it would “not conduct an investigation as it would be unlikely to yield any new safety lessons”.

A map of the flight path the plane took.

The small aircraft, minus a door, returned to Moruya Airport. Image: Flightrader24

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Far South Coast