Two-Day Long Search For Missing Plane Ended; Pilot Believed To Be Dead

Just when authorities gathered hope in finding the light plane and its pilot alive that went missing in south-east Queensland on Saturday morning, someone reportedly found a crashed Jabiru. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) media coordinator Andrea Hayward-Maher informed a farmer spotted a crashed Jabiru in a town about 39 kilometres away from Gympie. Later, AMSA confirmed it to be the same plane that Mr. Pavan was flying.

The plane’s pilot, Rob Pavan took off from the Gympie airfield about 9:30 a.m. (AEST) on Saturday, flying over small town of Dixalea, about 80 kilometres west of Gladstone. Mr. Pavan who is also an experienced aviator had recently completed a trip around the country. The plane he was flying was a single engine Jabiru 250 and the trip usually doesn’t take more than 90 minutes. Meanwhile, it is important to mention that the authorities left no stone unturned in the search operation, in fact, yesterday it declared its plan to resume search for the plane. The search began as soon as AMSA was alerted about him not arriving on time.

The search operation was performed on Saturday overnight, halted for sometime and resumed in the early hours of Sunday. The Gympie airport helped 13 other helicopters in the search that has just ended. The search operation had been around an inland area north-west of Gympie and south-east of Monto, covering more than 13,000 square kilometres.

"The search will be concentrated again in an area between Gympie and Monto and we will have a number of fixed-wing aircraft as well as helicopters assisting in the search," AMSA spokeswoman Lisa Martin said at the time of search.

Flying To Attend A Birthday Celebrations:

One of Mr. Pavan’s friends who is also a pilot, Wolfgang Klein, said he was thinking of accompanying Mr. Pavan for a 60th birthday party. "It's always devastating when things like that happen - that you don't know what's happened to your friends when they are going flying," he added.

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