Category: General Aviation

Speaking to ABC’s 7:30, RAAus chair Michael Monck said that one accident does not necessarily point to wider systemic problems. It comes as the organisation faces scrutiny over training shortfalls that allegedly contributed to the deaths of 20-year-old Luke Smith and his brother and cousin.

In dramatic scenes that spread across social media, the Piper PA-28, VA-BUN, crashed on the golf course on Sydney’s Northern Beaches on 17 August 2025 following a mechanical failure, with a student pilot sustaining minor injuries and the aircraft itself suffering heavy damage.

Gobel Aviation (formerly Soar Aviation), which was liquidated after entering administration in late 2020, was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Victoria to have been responsible for a 2017 light plane crash that left student Edward Ripper traumatised and unable to pursue a commercial pilot career.

Speaking to Sunrise, Angus Mitchell said the student pilot – identified in The Advertiser as 21-year-old Youngin Kim – was “very fortunate” to have escaped uninjured in the accident, which saw the Cessna 172M Skyhawk, understood to be registered VH-LGE, burst into flames, sparking a grass fire.