Bodies pulled from sea after plane crash
Bodies pulled from sea after plane crash
The bodies of a pilot and his passenger have been recovered from the wreckage of a Tiger Moth plane that crashed off the Gold Coast, police say.
Poor visibility earlier hampered the search off the Gold Coast.
Police divers, water police and other authorities searched for the 26-year-old pilot and his passenger, a 21-year-old French woman.
The Tiger Moth bi-plane crashed into the sea about 400 metres off South Stradbroke Island just after noon on Monday.
Police used a sonar scanner to try to find the bulk of the wreckage lying on the sea floor.
Senior Sergeant Lucas Young, from the water police, said it was a 'slow and meticulous' search, using sensitive sonar equipment that would bounce signals off the sea floor, back to water police.
The red and white timber plane crashed during a joy flight.
Some reports have said the plane speared into the water in an almost vertical position.
In his last radio communication, the pilot said: 'Conducting aerobatics over 3500 feet', The Courier-Mail has reported.