A Beechcraft B200 Super King Air was carrying five passengers have crashed into the nearby Duty Free Outlet (DFO) near the Tullamarine airport in Melbourne around 9am on Tuesday morning. The light aircraft was a chartered flight from Melbourne Essendon Airport (MEB) to King Island (KNS) in Tasmania.
On reviewing detailed data, it appears the crashed aircraft in Melbourne is VH-ZCR—a Beechcraft B200 Super King Air. https://t.co/ax8UA706wD pic.twitter.com/sDfhJ6VriR
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) February 20, 2017
Witnesses reported that they saw the aircraft hit the top of a building in DFO before crashing into a ball of fire at the back of a shop. News are still unfolding and nothing has been confirmed except the crash. There were no survivors.
According to news.com.au,
” It is understood one of the plane’s twin engines failed after takeoff with police saying the cause of the crash was likely “catastrophic engine failure”. “
Airplanes are generally a safer transportation vehicle when compared to a car. Chartered planes provide a more convenient way of flying to your destination than commercial ones. However, experts noted that chartered planes are more prone to accidents than commercial ones because commercial aircrafts have far more stricter safety checks and regulations than chartered ones.
The Beechcraft Super King Air family is made by Beechcraft. The Super King Air family has been in continuous production since 1974 and it is one of the longest production run of any civilian turboprop aircraft in its class.
King Island is situated in the middle of the Bass Strait between Victoria and Tasmania’s North West coast. It is about 250km from Melbourne. There are no ferries to King Island and so the only way to get there is to fly. It’s main attraction is the peaceful and pristine beaches on the island as well as housing two of the best public golf courses in Australia, Cape Wickham and Ocean Dunes.