Vic: Pilot a hero as he avoided crashing into homes
12 Jan 2009 11:10 AM
MELBOURNE, Jan 12 AAP - A 54-year-old pilot killed in a light plane crash south of Melbourne has been hailed a hero for steering his aircraft away from densely populated areas.
Martin Robson died when his home-built Bushby Mustang nosedived into bushland at the rear of a tennis court on a property in Craigrossie Road, Mornington, around 4pm (AEDT) on Sunday just 100m from a beach crowded with holidaymakers.
Alan Schwarze, president of the Peninsula Aero Club, said Mr Robson, a safety officer at the club, was an experienced pilot with great flying skills.
"He was a hero within the club," Mr Schwarze told AAP.
"We think he was trying to reach the golf club, I understand it wasn't very far away from the crash scene but he didn't make it that far.
"He would have been very conscious of flying the plane correctly and would have been doing his best to avoid collateral damage to himself, his aeroplane and others around him."
Mr Robson, from Tyabb on the Mornington Peninsula, had borrowed the plane from a fellow club member but had flown the aircraft before and was very familiar with it.
"It was his favourite toy," Mr Schwarze said.
He said Mr Robson, a married man with no children, was very community conscious and a driving force behind the club's involvement in Kids for Cancer.
Mr Robson's death was the second at the club in the past month.
Bob How, 62, died during his traditional Christmas Day fly-by around his Gippsland farm.
"Both were respected members of the club and will be very much missed," Mr Schwarze said.
"They were very, very prominent within the club and everyone knew who they were."
Police are preparing a brief for the coroner.
