Pilot’s body recovered from wreckage in southern NSW

Police have recovered the body of a pilot whose plane went down in a national park in southern NSW, after search efforts had been delayed by the mountainous terrain and dense bushland.

The pilot, a man believed to be in his 60s, and flying alone, crashed on Thursday afternoon after sending a distress signal over the Budawang National Park between Batemans Bay and Canberra. A multi-agency search located the plane about two hours later at 5pm.

About 2pm on Friday, police uncovered the body of the experienced pilot. Search teams had been hampered by the rugged conditions and bad weather, which prevented road and aerial access to the site on Thursday night.

Detective Chief Inspector David Cockram said rescuers had faced “full-on” bush terrain.

“Last night we had fog, so again, that prevented the aircraft being able to deploy people down into that exact location,” he said earlier on Friday.

The plane had taken off from Bankstown Airport on Thursday morning. The pilot travelled across the Victorian border briefly before flying off the radar at 2.50pm, less than hour before he was due to land in Sydney.

Nine News reported the pilot had rented the plane from Bankstown Flying School. The flight company declined to comment until the search effort is concluded.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau launched an investigation into the crash on Friday morning. Workers from Canberra, Sydney and were Brisbane deployed to examine the site with drones and to recover aircraft components from the wreckage.

Flight-tracking data and maintenance records are among the other information set to be retrieved from the site. A preliminary crash report is expected in November but the ATSB said any critical safety issues identified during investigations would be shared immediately.

The man is yet to be formally identified.

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