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Cloud cover blinding pilots phenomena blamed for crash of Des Porter's Dragon

Recovery teams will this morning begin the sombre task of removing the bodies of six people from the site of a plane crash in Queensland.

THE terrifying phenomena of pilots becoming blinded and lost in seemingly innocent cloud cover may have been to blame for the tragic demise of veteran pilot Des Porter, his wife and their closest friends.

Now that the first mystery of the plane's location has been solved, with the discovery yesterday of the destroyed aircraft in bushland near Mount Kandanga, inland from Nambour, the next question for investigators is what was responsible for the meticulously restored plane and its experienced pilot coming to such a tragic end.

Weather conditions, particularly the low-level cloud cover on the group's ill-fated journey from Monto to Caboolture, may be to blame.

Once a pilot, even the most experienced, strays into cloud, the difference between life and death can come down to a matter of seconds.

Safety experts call it controlled flight into terrain - and they talk grimly about untrained pilots who drift into cloud having as little as three minutes to live.

Without special training teaching them to rely solely on their instruments, even the most hardened pilots can rapidly lose situational awareness.

Des Porter 1934 De Havilland DH84 Dragon

Des Porter in the 1934 De Havilland DH84 Dragon. Picture: Glenn Barnes

Safety studies have shown that in just under 180 seconds, pilots who lack the necessary skills to ignore everything but their instruments have a very short life expectancy.

"Your altimeter says you're at 1500 feet (457m), but your map tells you there's local terrain as high as 1200 feet," a Civil Aviation Safety Authority video says.

"There might even be a tower nearby, because you're not sure how far off course you are. But you've flown into worse weather than this, so you press on . . .

"Somewhere, a voice is saying: 'You should have turned back'. You now have 178 seconds to live."

Burnett Flyers president Ralph Percy, who has flown for about 50 years, said cloud cover often meant an almost instant loss of visual "horizon", which had the potential to send even the most experienced pilots to their doom.

Search for the Dragon

DRAGON: 540 square nautical miles was searched for the missing plane. Picture: Jack Tran / The Australian

"Once you get into clouds, you can have a matter of seconds to live," the 71-year-old said.

"You don't know where up and where way down is, because you're moving and you lose centre of gravity.

"They reckon you can lose your perspective in 15 seconds."

The worst-case scenario is one where "the plane dives and goes into a spiral down".

"You can't control it because you don't know which way to go," he said.

Plane crash site

CRASH SITE: A Google Map satellite image of the crash location. The aircraft hit the top of a ridge.

The danger was compounded for Des Porter, whose vintage plane was not equipped to fly through fog or cloud, and when the weather closed in, it led the 68-year-old to lose track of where he was.

About two hours after he took off, he was starting to worry. At 1.18pm, he picked up his radio and called for help.

Air Traffic Control called the Rescue Co-ordination Centre and it called the AGL Action Rescue Helicopter.

A flight on Des Porter's de Havilland Dragon

The rescue crew had their chopper in the air just five minutes after picking up the phone.

Plane crash rescue chopper

An AGL Action Rescue helicopter near the crash site. PIC: Jack Tran

Co-pilot Rick Harvey managed to get Mr Porter on the radio as the chopper flew towards the Dragon.

The Dragon's distress beacon was sending out a few scattered signals as the helicopter sped towards it.

Mr Portert told his rescuers he still had an hour of fuel left in normal conditions but he had been flying up and down through the clouds trying to establish a location.

By 2pm, with the rescue chopper closing in, Harvey was asking him to switch to another radio channel in the hope of a clearer signal.

"Roger that," he said.

"Now changing to 125.5."

Harvey switched over and called Mr Porter on his radio.

There was no reply.

The Dragon's non-GPS distress beacon had put out five scattered signals at 1.55pm.

Twenty minutes after Harvey lost contact, the beacon shut down.

Aviators have for decades been warned of the dangers, and regulators like CASA run courses in the dangers of controlled flight into terrain.

Pilots who don't have so-called instrument ratings steer well clear of cloud because of the potential consequences.

Those who do qualify to fly under instrument flight rules undergo intensive training which teaches them to rely solely on their instruments - and not be distracted from them - when they can no longer see outside the aircraft.

As well as the pilot gaining an instrument rating, the aircraft's instruments must meet extremely high standards for reliability, and back-up systems must be in place.

Additional reporting Neale Maynard

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