A light plane carrying seven people has crashed into the shallow waters of Roebuck Bay off the northwestern Australian coast, injuring one person, authorities said.
The crash occurred on Thursday just after 11:25 a.m. local time, more than 2,000 kilometers north of Perth, when the twin‑engine Cessna 441 Conquest went down shortly after taking off from Broome Airport, according to witnesses cited by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Local police said one person suffered minor head injuries. No other serious injuries were reported, but all seven people aboard—two pilots and five passengers—were taken to Broome Hospital.
“There are no suspected life-threatening injuries,” a St. John Ambulance spokeswoman said in a statement to Australian media. First responders, including marine rescue crews and police, responded to the scene where the plane had come to rest near mangroves in the bay’s murky shallows—an area known to be home to crocodiles.
Several locals who watched the plane moments before impact described seeing it fly unusually low over the coastline.
“I saw it flying and then dipping quite low, and then I just assumed it had passed over the horizon … it was just a bit past the mangroves,” witness Alex MacNamara told the ABC from the Broome jetty. “It looked like it was doing a sort of turn on an angle and then it was just dipping quite low.”
Another local, Bili Putra, said he was fishing when he saw a helicopter winch someone from the water. “When we were fishing, we saw the helicopter and then the police came with the boat,” he said. “We were using the phone and then we zoomed in and we saw someone they pulled out from the water.”
The plane had been bound for Mungalalu Truscott Airport, roughly 620 kilometers northeast, a remote hub used to ferry oil and gas workers to offshore rigs.
Once on site, investigators will map the wreckage, examine the plane, and recover any onboard recorders or components for further testing at the ATSB’s technical facilities in Canberra, the agency said on Thursday. They plan to interview flight crew, passengers, and witnesses while also collecting flight data, CCTV footage, maintenance records, and weather information.
Roebuck Bay, a sweeping curve of red tidal waters bordered by mangroves, is popular with sightseers and recreational fishers.