Father's frantic triple-0 call after fiery plane crash on suburban street

Audio has emerged of the frantic triple-0 call made by a witness as he rushed to help the pilot of a plane, which had crashed in a suburban Melbourne street.

The father-of-one, who lived near the crash site, stayed on the phone with the operator as he raced to the scene to help.

Residents of Mordialloc, in Melbourne’s southeast, are unlikely to forget the moment the Cessna plane plummeted to the ground.

Richard Saunders had been watching the plane on June 8 with his baby son when it turned sharply and crashed.

Asked by the operator to describe what has happened, Mr Saunders says: “I just sat in my living room and I saw a plane go down… there’s a huge fire and smoke, and there’s lots of people rushing to the area.

“It might have landed on someone’s house.”

“Is anyone trapped?” the operator asks.

“No idea,” Mr Saunders responds.

Pilot and father-of-two Anthony Liddell was the only person on board.

Residents tried in vain to save him using garden hoses to douse the flame, but he died at the scene.

In his final moments he managed to avoid further tragedy by steering the plane away from houses.

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The horrifying ordeal also highlighted the bravery of local residents, who rushed to the pilot’s aid, despite a large and dangerous fire.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is working to figure out exactly what caused the crash.

A preliminary report into the crash will be handed down before the end of the month.