NSW: Two women dead after plane crashes into house
18 Dec 2008 4:12 PM
Eds: Reissuing to correct name in 10th, 11th and 17th pars to Contina, not Condina as sent.
SYDNEY, Dec 18 AAP - A trip to see Santa has saved a mother and baby who would otherwise have been home when a light plane crashed into their Sydney house, killing two female pilots.
Two small planes from separate training schools collided in mid-air, sending one into a spin before it smashed into the back of the Flame Tree Street residence in Casula, in Sydney's south-west, about 11.30am (AEST) on Thursday.
Police say two women, believed to aged their 20s, died in the Cessna, which is owned by Basair Aviation College. One of them was an instructor and the other a student pilot.
The other plane, a single-engine Liberty, which was owned by Sydney Flight Training Centre, made an emergency landing at Bankstown Airport, police said.
Its 89-year-old male instructor and 25-year-old male student pilot were not hurt and the plane suffered minor damage.
Basair business development manager Darren Ward said families, friends and work colleagues were "very upset and very, very distressed" about the deaths.
"There's nothing worse in aviation. Unfortunately it is a part of aviation," he told reporters.
"People suffer accidents on the roads regularly - it happens in aeroplanes too."
Bianca and Steven Contina, and their two-week-old baby Aiden, were not home when the plane struck their house.
Mrs Contina's father said his daughter and grandson would have been there if not for the Christmas season.
"I feel blessed," Gino Velerio told reporters.
"She took the baby for a photo with Santa Claus ... some time this morning."
He said Bianca and the baby normally spent most of their time in the kitchen, which is attached to the patio area demolished by the plane.
Witnesses have described seeing the stricken light plane with a damaged tail flying low over Casula.
"I was going along the M5 and I've just seen this thing coming down ... the tail was hanging off the back and it's crashed into the back of a house up near Box Road and it's absolutely demolished the back of their house," one witness told Fairfax Radio Network.
Neighbour Lisa Barker said the Continas were new to the street.
"They've only just finished their house, three quarters done their landscaping and just moved in and had a baby last week."
Another neighbour, Rob, said debris from the plane crash had damaged neighbouring houses, "so it must have been pretty high impact".
Another man said the woman who lived next door to the house was in her pool when the planes collided.
"She was telling me that the planes collided with each other and one of the wings was just hanging off, and that was the one that came down and crashed into the house," Kiran Chokkanna said.
"She was in the pool swimming, and luckily nothing happened to her."
Air Services Australia spokesman Rob Walker said the collision happened outside controlled airspace.
"The incident took place outside of controlled airspace so they weren't under the control of any of our controllers," Mr Walker told AAP.
"Light aircraft generally fly at the lower altitudes ... they fly according to CASA regulations which means they basically keep a lookout and avoid, so they basically self-separate."
