| Tiger Moth in fatal crash near Gold Coast had record-breaking pilot behind controls |
A record-breaking young pilot has been identified as the man who was flying a Tiger Moth plane which crashed near the Gold Coast on Monday, killing a 58-year-old passenger.
Ryan Campbell, from Merimbula on the NSW south coast, made aviation history in 2013 when he became the youngest person to fly solo around the world in 70 days.
On Monday the vintage Tiger Moth flown by the 21-year-old crashed on an old airstrip near Pimpama-Jacobs Well Road at Norwell, between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
It was found upside down, with the front seat passenger already deceased when authorities arrived.
The passenger was named as Gary Turnbull, a 58-year-old man from Coutts Crossing, near Grafton in northern NSW.
His daughter was at the airfield and witnessed the crash.
Mr Campbell was just 19 when he circumnavigated the globe, writing about the feat in his memoirs.
A friend of Mr Campbell's from Bega, Des Hefferman, praised the young pilot's flying record.
"[Circumnavigating the globe] is a wonderful achievement — to fly that distance in a single-engine aircraft," Mr Hefferman, who is also a pilot, told the ABC.
"[It is] not only the weather but also if you have engine problems or anything else associated with that."
Over 10 weeks he flew about 24,000 nautical miles, spending approximately 180 hours in the air, telling the ABC in 2013 that the process aged him.
"I don't think I'll take anything on like that for a while," he said.
"I was always obsessed with flying from [the age of] six.
"I was very keen and eager and driven, I went and found an after-school job. I started to pay for flying lessons, and I went solo on my 15th birthday."
"He is an incredible young person," Mr Heffernan said of his friend.
"You would have to be a very, very astute person. Very, very confident."
Police said they believed the plane, which carries out joy flights, crashed shortly after take-off.
Mr Campbell, who is in a serious condition in a Brisbane hospital with his parents by his bedside, is believed to have called police from his mobile phone.
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