A student pilot from Hong Kong and his Australian instructor were killed yesterday in a plane crash in Australia, the second overseas aircraft tragedy involving a Hong Kong trainee pilot in two months.
The 25-year-old male student, Jeffrey Li, and his instructor Matthew Furlong, 31, died at the scene when their plane spiraled into the ground at a farm near Beaudesert, a popular aircraft training area, Australian outlet the Courier-Mail reports.
The four-seater aircraft, identified as a Diamond DA40, took off from Archerfield Airport at 9am local time but smashed into the field in the middle of a distress call.
The plane was manufactured in 2006 and is owned by Aircrew Training and Support based in Springfield, Queensland.
Australian media reported that the Hong Kong student had been living in Brisbane since July for his pilot’s license training and the instructor was employed by Flylink Aviation College, a company known for training Chinese student pilots.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau yesterday sent investigators to the site of the crash to investigate. Hong Kong’s Immigration Department confirmed it had received a call for assistance regarding the incident and said it is following up on the case.
In August, a 19-year-of Hong Kong student pilot, Nicholas Cheung, died in a plane crash near Melbourne. His instructor was critically injured in the accident.
