Lucky pilot speaks out after incredibly escaping serious injury in light plane crash at Narrogin Aerodrome

“I couldn’t slow it down. I couldn’t steer it. I couldn’t do anything.” Those were the words of 74-year-old pilot Alan Arthur after he incredibly walked away from a light plane crash at Narrogin Aerodrome last week. “Everything was going perfectly well one second and it was all completely wrong the next,” Mr Arthur said. “You don’t have time to be terrified or panicked.” The Narrogin Gliding Club president has spoken out about the crash that that left him trapped upside down inside his two-seater VariEze aircraft, with wreckage scattered across a field in the Wheatbelt last Thursday. Mr Arthur lost control of the plane at 100km/h when a gust of wind blew him off course and into a weather station during an otherwise routine landing. He said the two rear wheels had touched the tarmac when he was hit by “some sort of thermal willy-willy”. “I thought for a few micro-seconds that I could put some power on and fly away but then I realised I didn't have flying speed so if I put power on it would just make things worse,” he said. One of his wings dropped and hit the ground, spearing the plane off the runway and into a weather station. “I couldn’t pick where I was going — it was going there regardless,” he said. The plane landed upside down after smashing through the weather station and airport fencing, leaving him trapped in the wreckage for 15 minutes. The front nose of the plane and one of its wings had detached from the fuselage during impact. The plane was leaking fuel as Mr Arthur hung upside down among the broken fibreglass and exposed wires. “I realised there was no way I was getting out of this and if it catches fire, you’re dead,” he said. Narrogin Flying Club pilot Paul Saccani was at the scene of the crash within 45 seconds but he was not able to free his friend from the wreckage on his own. Mr Saccani used a fire extinguisher to ensure the pooling fuel did not ignite, but it made breathing difficult for Mr Arthur in the cramped cockpit. “There was fuel that was running out, so he nearly bloody choked me with the fire extinguisher,” he said. Mr Arthur was not out of danger until two female police officers arrived to help Mr Sacanni lift the plane high enough for him to crawl out. “I wriggled and crawled out of the canopy where I was picked up and dragged away from the fuel,” he said. St John Ambulance took him to Narrogin Hospital, where he received treatment for a deep gash to his foot caused by fibreglass. The RAC rescue helicopter, which had been dispatched to Narrogin, was not required. In good spirits after escaping serious injury, Mr Arthur said he wanted to get back in the air as soon as his foot healed. “I’ve got to get back on the horse straight away,” he said.