What happened
On the morning of the accident, an aircraft departed from Polo Flat at 07:50 hours, intending to complete a flight circuit including Khancoban and Talbingo. At the time of departure, dense fog enveloped the Polo Flat area, though conditions were clear above the fog layer. While weather at Cooma Aerodrome had cleared earlier that morning, the fog near Polo Flat persisted throughout the mission, only beginning to break intermittently by approximately 09:30 hours.
The pilot remained in radio contact with the base operations officer at Polo Flat and received updates regarding the local weather. During an arrival into the area, the aircraft was observed performing a landing approach from the north; however, the maneuver was aborted when the plane descended to an altitude of roughly 10 to 15 feet.
Following this, the aircraft continued flying above the fog layer at approximately 500 feet. The aircraft was later heard approaching from a southern direction. During a radio transmission, the pilot began to say, "hit the...", which was immediately followed by the sound of an impact. The port wing of the aircraft struck a radio transmitter mast at a point 32 feet below its summit. The subsequent crash occurred in a steep nose-down orientation approximately 146 meters north of the structure. A significant fire broke out at the site following the collision.
There were three fatalities involving the pilot and two passengers.
Findings
The investigation concluded that the accident was caused by the pilot operating the aircraft at an unsafe altitude during weather conditions that prevented the maintenance of necessary visual references to avoid obstacles.