Two people including a Traralgon-based pilot on board a GippsAero 10-seater Airvan parachuted to safety after the GA10 crashed in southern California on Monday morning American time.
This morning GippsAero confirmed the company’s chief test pilot David Wheatland was on board the turboprop at the time of the incident.
GippsAero chief executive Keith Douglas said “Traralgon pilot, David Wheatland, spent the night in a local hospital as a precautionary measure after the incident,” in a statement.
Mr Wheatland was discharged from hospital the following day.
“US based pilot, Greg Lewis, did not attend hospital,” the statement said.
Parent company Mahindra Aerospace rolled off the production line at the Latrobe Regional Airport in August.
Media reports from the United States said a pilot and passenger safely ejected from the aircraft before the aircraft crashed during a test flight in the Mojave Desert, about 24 kilometres west of the Edwards Air Force Base.
Earle Boyter, a North American official of GippsAero, was reported as saying both occupants of the Airvan were okay after “successfully deploying their parachutes”.
“The 10-seat experimental utility plane was likely destroyed,” Mr Boyter told AVweb.
It is understood the pilots were testing the experimental aircraft which is usually based in Australia. Speaking to FlightGlobal, GippsAero said the pilot was “running through some tests in different configurations and everything went bad for a while.”
In August 2017, Mr Wheatland described the $1.7 million US aircraft as a “Landcruiser Troopcarrier equivalent”.
“It’s a working aeroplane so it’s ideal for operators who need a reliable, rugged, dependable product,” he said at the time.
“There’s places in Africa, New Guinea, in Northern Australia, Alaska and Canada where this plane is a perfect fit.
“What we also find, is that it’s achieved quite a lot of success in police agencies overseas because it can carry quite a big load of fuel and a big load of equipment.”
The company employs about 115 people at its Traralgon facility at Latrobe Regional Airport.
GippsAero said it was “cooperating fully with the investigation being conducted by the National Transport Safety Bureau and providing full support to those involved”.
