NT: Narrow escape for Territory minister
By Karen Michelmore
DARWIN, Aug 22 AAP - A Northern Territory government minister was on board a lightaircraft that skidded on its nose before take off from Darwin Airport this morning.
John Ah Kit, the minister for sport, housing, local government and regional development,said he feared the plane would catch on fire when the aircraft's nose apparently buckledas it was about to take off.
The relatively new twin engine Turbo Prop, which was travelling at high speed, skiddedfor about 200 metres along the nose before it was brought to stop, he said.
Vincent Aviation said three separate investigations had been launched into the incidentby Vincent, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
"Everyone just braced themselves and just said hang on, hang on," Mr Ah Kit told ABC radio.
"As soon as the plane came to a halt we got the back door open and we got everyoneout and had a little sprint about 50m away to safety.
"Everyone was pretty well shook up a bit.
"Two things crossed my mind - gee it's good to be alive and secondly the numbers arestill 13, 10, 2 (in Labor's favour in NT Parliament)."
Mr Ah Kit was travelling to a funeral at the indigenous community of Barunga, nearKatherine, with seven others on board the aircraft.
"We were taking off, we would have been at speeds of about 180mph I would think, andas you felt ready to lift the plane off the tarmac, the front buckled under the nose,but came back onto the tarmac with a big thud," he said.
"I'm not sure whether the propellers were hitting the tarmac itself, but certainlythe pilot had to brace himself as we all had to brace ourselves."
He said the pilot did well to keep the plane on the tarmac.
"I had fears of the plane going off the tarmac to the dry grass area and maybe a sparkigniting the fuel," Mr Ah Kit said.
Vincent Aviation chief pilot Willie Sage said no one was hurt in the incident.
"No one was hurt, that's the most important thing," he said.
"The next most important thing is to find out what happened to make sure it doesn'thappen again."
AAP km/sco/de
KEYWORD: NT PLANE
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