Pair survive Preston Beach plane crash unscathed as witness recalls moment he saw aircraft falling from sky

A Preston Beach resident has recalled the moment he saw a plane falling from the sky during a recreational plane crash, which miraculously left both men in the plane able to walk away. Paramedics were called to the scene of a recreational aircraft crash just before 2pm on Tuesday near Preston Beach Road North in Preston Beach. According to police, an 85-year-old male pilot and 72-year-old male passenger suffered minor injuries and were assessed by St John WA paramedics. It is understood they suffered minor cuts and bruising and did not require hospitalisation. Speaking exclusively to the South Western Times, David, who saw the incident from his property just 200m from the crash, said he heard a loud bang outside his house on Tuesday afternoon. He followed his dogs from the house after hearing the noise he now presumes was caused by the parachute deploying. “At first, I thought it was a piece of shuttle and an astronaut, but it was actually not,” he said. “Next, I thought, jeez, when this lands, it’s gonna blow, but because it had the parachute, it was coming down at a slow speed, and it didn’t explode. “Then obviously, the next thing is what are you going to see when you find it, which was lucky it was very good.” According to David, the pilot told him the issue arose when the horizontal part of the rear wing broke off, causing the plane to go into a spin. After seeing the crash David said his mind went next to the danger of fire. “Things run through your head, and they’re mostly fire. I live on an acreage, next door is an acreage, and we’ve just gone through a pile of fires in Waroona. The last thing we needed was another fire starting,” he said. “He (the pilot) said he was still carrying 45 litres of fuel on board, so it could have been quite a nasty fire.” When speaking to the men after the crash David said he told them to count their lucky stars. “I told him to go and buy a lottery ticket for sure,” he said. “That doesn’t happen every day, and you can walk away from that, and it was very, very lucky. Even the aftermath could have been worse.” The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is set to begin an investigation into the crash.