December 3 2005
Prominent Victorian businessman Peter Menegazzo and his wife Angela were among four people killed on board a twin-engine Piper Chieftain that went down in a paddock near Condobolin around 1430hrs yesterday
 
The PA-31 had departed Archerfield earlier and was en-route to Swan Hill in Victoria when it ended up impacting the ground and bursting into flames after encountering severe weather conditions - media reports have structural failure as the most likely cause of the accident

 
The 10-seater aircraft was owned by Peter Menegazzo who was at the centre of a syndicate that purchased the Stanbroke Pastoral Company empire from the AMP for $490 million back in 2003

There has been a similar "in-flight break-up" with a home-built aircraft in September '05 - also suspected to be as a result of extreme weather conditions in this case turbulence - for report click HERE
 
The last fatal accident involving a Piper Chieftain was RL Aviation's at Mt Hotham in July '05 - report HERE

December 3 2005
The Boeing 737 en-route from Townsville to Brisbane experienced a fracture in a windscreen section when flying at 34,000'
 
The captain carried out standard emergency procedure and descended to below 10,000' and landed a short time later at Brisbane airport without further drama

 
Ambulance crews treated 11 of the 99 passengers on board the jet with 9 transported to the Princess Alexandra and Royal Brisbane Hospitals suffering from nausea - headaches - nose bleeds and ear aches
 
The ATSB will interview maintenance personnel over the incident

December 5 2005
Dick Smith continues with his "Air Safety Campaign" highlighting to the media the attitude taken by the regulatory authority and their obsession with creating new regulations to rectify any "problems"
 
Recent fatal accidents have shown that there has been just 9 fatalities in aircraft flown by private pilots and 70 deaths attributable to accidents involving aircraft flown by professional (commercial) pilots

 
Dick believes the rising accident rate can be attributed to the failure of CASA to promote good airmanship and commonsense
 
CASA "...have completely over-regulated with prescriptive rules that's allowed the pilots to the think that if you just comply with the rules and don't use your brain you'll be safe"

December 7 2005
The pilot of an OZ designed Cobra Arrow home-built aircraft had a lucky escape from his machine when it caught fire after running into a fence at the Coldstream Airfield in Victoria
 
The aircraft valued at around $120,000 was destroyed in the blaze

 
"He made his way to the first aid section of the airport ...with only burns to his hands arms and singed hair"
 
The pilot apparently landed "long" and ran out of runway