Dozens Tried To Help Him Land

It was a massive rescue effort that involved dozens of people from St. George in Australia's Queensland Territory. In the end, however, the were unable to save a 49-year old diabetic pilot who had taken off from Bundaberg Tuesday, heading west.

The man radioed controllers that he wasn't feeling good according to Mike Flanigan with the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service. The pilot, whose name hasn't been released, told controllers that he was falling in and out of consciousness.

Residents of St. George ran to help as they watched the aircraft circle west of town. When they lost sight of the two-place homebuilt, they sent an aircraft from Jones Air to try to guide the stricken pilot to a safe landing.

But pilot Mick Kennedy told local reporters the diabetic pilot was having trouble understanding the instructions he was getting.

"We tried to talk him down but we weren't having any success," he said. "Everything he said to us was a statement rather than any acknowledgement of what he heard. I just kept saying 'get your wings level, get your wings level' and 'get your power back on, get your power back on', but at the end of it that is not what happened."

Kennedy said the aircraft appeared to run out of fuel. After that, said Kennedy, "It was just a slow descending turn on to the ground."

Scott Jones, general manager of Jones Air, said his employees and others Jones Air general manager Scott Jones said their company and others "tried everything they could to get him on the ground. It was dreadful... a tragedy."

FMI: www.atsb.gov.au