60-year-old Barry Hempel was the pilot in a Yak-52 that was on an aerobatic joy-flight with a passenger when is crashed into the water off Stradbroke Island

Witnesses near Jumpinpin reported - seeing the red plane perform a series of dives and loops before going into a steep dive about 12.30pm yesterday - from which it never recovered

The Yak-52 was a former Soviet Union built machine purchased for warbird flights in 2005

Barry had more than 29,000 flying hours in all types of aircraft ranging from WWI biplanes to jet fighters - corporate jets and airliners

News Desk Comment

Barry arrived on Archerfield in the mid 70's as an instructor at Gil Layt's Flying School - he started his own flying school around 1980 in the AirCentre Hangar alongside the main terminal building at Archerfield

QLD Police Divers have located the wreckage of the missing Yak-52 around 1810hrs just east of Jumpinpin Bar at South Stradbroke Island in approximately 20 metres of water

Two bodies were found inside the aircraft and are yet to be officially identified - Police expect to recover the bodies from the Yak to-morrow

Queensland Police divers have retrieved the bodies of two men killed in the crash off South Stradbroke Island - they were Barry Hempel and 35-year-old passenger Ian Lovell

The Yak was found upside down and divers had to float an airbag off the tail of the aircraft so they could lift the fuselage high enough to remove the pilot

The pilot and passenger in a SF-25C Falke Motor-Glider were killed when the machine nose-dived into the ground when on approach to land at the Watts Bridge airstrip near Toogoolawah north-west of Archerfield

The Ch-7/10 TV news reports have identified the passenger as Shane Winter who was involved in the organisation of events at the airfield