A family and their community are in mourning after a young father and husband died as his plane crashed into farmland.
Jarred Wait, 36, died when his crop dusting aircraft crashed into a paddock at Yeelanna, just under an hour north of Port Lincoln in South Australia, about 1:30pm on Monday.
Wait leaves behind his wife Madeleine and young daughter Poppy.
He was a keen surfer and local football player in his hometown of Port Lincoln.
Wait had been working with Aerotech, South Australia’s largest privately owned aviation company, as a subcontractor for the past three years when the crash happened.
The company has since released a statement about the crash.
“Aerotech expresses its profound sympathies to the family and friends of our colleague who died while aerial crop spraying on the Eyre Peninsula yesterday,” a spokesperson said.
“We are supporting the wellbeing of those immediately impacted by this incident including our staff. Aerotech is assisting SA Police, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and other relevant organisations as well as conducting our own investigations.”
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has commenced a transport safety investigation into the incident on Monday.
“As reported to the ATSB, the aircraft collided with terrain during agricultural spraying operations,” they said.
“The ATSB will deploy a team of transport safety investigators from its Canberra and Melbourne offices, specialising in aircraft operations and engineering, to the accident site.”
ATSB investigators will conduct a range of evidence-gathering activities, including site and wreckage examination, and recovery of any aircraft components for further examination at the ATSB’s technical facilities in Canberra.