A pilot and his partner were miraculously unharmed after their small plane lost all power and they narrowly avoided crashing into suburban homes before landing upside down on a runway.
Incredible video footage captured the moment pilot Jake Swanepoel desperately tried to guide his light plane over houses in Sydney’s west after experiencing engine failure shortly before 2pm on Sunday.
The small Cessna plane crashed into the top of a tree and barely managed to pass over two hangars at Bankstown airport, in the west of the city, before crashing onto the runway and coming to an abrupt stop on the grass about 150 meters later.
Incredible video footage captured the moment pilot Jake Swanepoel desperately tried to guide his small plane over houses in western Sydney after experiencing engine failure shortly before 2pm on Sunday (pictured: Swanepoel and his companion Karin after miraculously emerging unscathed from the accident).
The plane crashed into the top of a tree and barely managed to clear two hangars at Bankstown airport, in the west of the city, before crashing onto the runway and coming to an abrupt stop on the grass about 150 meters later (at the photo).
“It was sliding, there was no power,” a shaken Mr Swanepoel, who has been flying for almost 30 years, told 9News.
“We cut down the trees and went over the hangar.”
Surprisingly, Swanepoel and his partner Karin emerged from the damaged plane unharmed.
Karin said they didn’t think they would make it to the track.
“It was very, very close,” Karin said.
“It was scary and stressful because you were thinking about all these houses that you could potentially… you know, if you don’t make it to the track.”
NSW Ambulance said there were no injuries.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau will conduct an investigation to determine the cause of the accident.
The pilot (right) was uninjured and there was no impact on airport operations.
It is understood that the plane landed on the taxiway and the airport runway was not affected.
In 2008, two people on board a small plane died after the plane they were flying collided in mid-air with another small plane before plummeting into a house near Bankstown Airport.
No one was home at the time, while the other plane landed safely.