Pilot shoots down claim of 'near miss' with 4WD at Aussie tourist hotspot
There's more to the incident than meets the eye.
The owner of the airline involved in an alleged incident on a popular Aussie tourist island has rejected suggestions that a plane and car almost collided, saying it was "just another day at the office".
Gerry Geltch told Yahoo News Australia that he couldn't believe it when a video of one of his pilots taking off from the sand was posted online with the insinuation of a near miss.
"Silly things like this don't do us justice at all," he said. "It is something that happens 20 times a day."
Video shocks internet
In the 20-second clip, which was taken on K'gari just after 8.30am on Saturday 21 October, a plane can be seen speeding up over the sand. Just before it takes off, a white four-wheel-drive is spotted in the left of the frame and appears to drive directly towards the aircraft before the plane launches into the sky.
The woman who captured the video shared it on Facebook with the caption: "What NOT to do when a plane is taking off on the beach. We are assuming this driver either did not see the plane coming or panicked. Could have ended badly!"
She later commented: "We were shocked at the stupidity of some people. They are either completely ignorant or just don't give a crap. Not sure which is worse!"
The video quickly went viral, and plenty of people jumped in to have their say. "What were they thinking, crazy!" one viewer wrote. "Just another tourist making bad calls," another added. "The driver is just a senseless idiot," someone else commented.
But not all is as it seemed.
Not a dangerous move
According to Mr Geltch, the car contained Air Fraser Island staff members. "It was obviously a ground crew car that was driving up and it pulled in behind the aeroplane after it took off," he said. "And if you look at it, the aircraft was already airborne and then the car turned in behind the aeroplane so it wasn't a dangerous move."
Mr Geltch, who's been landing on the K'gari beach for 34 years, went on to explain that the ground crew would have been stopping traffic at the airborne end of the runway ahead of take off.
"So the ground crew car was in the correct place at the right time doing the right thing," he said. "And you can see by the time the car turned in, the aircraft was probably 50 foot in the air."
"To the average person, they see it and they go, 'Oh sh*t, what's going on?', but my boys are highly trained and when we get our new pilots in they do a minimum of six months on ground crew before I even put them in the aeroplane to train them. Then it's a 25-hour endorsement with my son Troy, who is the chief pilot, and I sitting beside them before they're allowed to go solo. This is a very unique operation that we have here."
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