Garry Herne is the Chief Pilot of Vintage Tiger Moth Joyflights. 65079 Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI
By XAVIER SMERDON
EMERGENCY crews rushed to the scene of a vintage aeroplane’s emergency landing in Werribee earlier this month after initial reports said the plane had crashed.
The 70-year-old Tiger Moth aircraft used New Farm Rd in Werribee as a makeshift runway on Saturday 7 January after the pilot realised the engine was not running properly.
The plane, a 1942 model Tiger Moth, is owned by Vintage Tiger Moth Joyflights, a Point Cook based company that offers thrill seekers the chance to experience what it was like to be flying during World War II.
Chief Pilot and Director of Vintage Tiger Moth Joyflights, Garry Herne, told Star the pilot took the aircraft down as a precaution.
“The pilot made a precautionary landing on land owned by Melbourne Water a mile north of the sewerage treatment works, due to a rough running engine,” Mr Herne said.
“The fault was found to be fouled spark plugs and the aircraft was flown out the next day and returned to Point Cook.”
Melissa Wu who lives in Westleigh Drive, near the site of the landing, was one of several people who turned to social networking site Twitter to announce the falsely reported crash.
“I was working in the garden when we saw heaps of fire trucks speed past our house,” Ms Wu said.
“One of our other neighbours said they had seen an old plane flying really low just before that so we all thought it must have crashed or something.
“It wasn’t until a few days later that we found out that it was just an emergency landing or something.”
Both the pilot and the passenger at the time were unharmed in the incident.
