VIC:Crash pilot was a 'reliable' volunteer

AAP General News (Australia)
08-16-2011
VIC:Crash pilot was a 'reliable' volunteer

By Belinda Merhab

MELBOURNE, Aug 16 AAP - A volunteer pilot who died in a plane crash along with the
teenage girl he was flying home from a medical appointment had bought a plane especially
to help people in need.

Don Kernot, 69, had 40 years' experience as a pilot when his plane crashed in a paddock
in Wallup, near Horsham, around 6.30pm (AEST) on Monday.

The grandfather had moved to the nearby town of Yarrawonga when he retired last year.

He began volunteering as a pilot with the Angel Flight charity earlier this year and
told the Yarrawonga Chronicle newspaper that he bought his Piper Cherokee 180 especially
for his charity work, because his Cessna 150 was too small and slow.

Angel Flight offers free flights to medical facilities, with volunteer pilots offering
their time as well as their aircraft and the associated flight expenses.

Mr Kernot's work with Angel Flight cost him up to $500 a month.

The father of three began flying back in 1968.

Angel Flight founder and chief executive Bill Brinstow said Mr Kernot was an experienced
pilot who had been involved in 24 missions for the charity and had "proved very reliable".

He said Mr Kernot had more than 850 hours in-command flight experience and had a rating
to fly at night.

"There's something different about a volunteer being killed in this way," Mr Brinstow told AAP.

"Flights tend to take a day, they mostly write-off a day to do a flight so they're
making an important donation."

Mr Brinstow said the flight had caused him to wonder whether he should have established
the charity to begin with.

"I had moments last night of going, `gee, if I hadn't started Angel Flight', this wouldn't
have happened," he said.

"It's a dreadful, dreadful disaster, what a shame.

"How dreadfully sad for the family and friends of the girl and also of the pilot."

Mr Kernot died at the scene of the crash along with his 15-year-old passenger, who
was travelling home to Nhill after receiving regular treatment in Melbourne.

Mr Brinstow said the girl and her 43-year-old mother, the sole survivor of the crash,
were on their 20th mission with Angel Flight and had been flying with the charity every
three months for five years.

The girl's mother suffered head, chest and rib injuries and remained in a critical
condition at the Royal Melbourne Hospital on Tuesday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Mr Brinstow said this was the first accident the charity had experienced since it was
founded in 2003.

He said he found out about the tragedy about 9pm, when the girl's father called to
say the flight had not arrived.

Neville Blyth, duty manager at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, said a team
of four aviation safety investigators would spend three to four days examining the crash
scene.

They will conduct a preliminary site survey, examining the site and any evidence of
impact marks, talking to witnesses and studying weather conditions at the time of the
crash.

Emergency services were called to the scene after a local farmer reported seeing a
low-flying plane, before hearing a crash.

"I heard the plane fly over probably about 6.15pm, flying low, heard the throttle,
heard him throttle back a little bit... sounded fine, kept going, that's the last I heard
and saw," a local man told ABC Radio.

The plane was found in a paddock off McLennans Road about 8pm.

AAP bm/gfr/goc/

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