Essendon plane crash aircraft recently underwent maintenance check
Updated
A plane that crashed near Essendon Airport, killing five people, had been through a maintenance check only last month, it has been revealed, as investigators continue to gather evidence at the scene.
Four American tourists and Australian pilot Max Quartermain died after their Beechcraft B200 Super King Air crashed shortly after take-off.
It crashed into the nearby DFO shopping centre, hitting the storage areas of Focus on Furniture and JB Hi Fi, before bursting into flames.
The ABC has been told the plane had only flown five hours since its last maintenance.
The plane was built in 1996 and the ABC understands it had previously been used in Noumea, before being registered in Australia in December 2013.
The ABC has been told at the time of the accident Mr Quartermain was qualified to conduct flights after facing four Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) tests since an incident in September 2015, when his aircraft was involved in a near miss in bad weather at Mt Hotham.
Mr Quartermain was tested twice immediately after the Mount Hotham incident, and twice last year.
It is still unclear who the registered operator of the plane was on the day of the crash after a delay in the transfer paperwork between Bendigo-based My Jet, and Australian Corporate Jet Centres (ACJC) based at Essendon.
CASA updated its database at 12:01pm yesterday, three hours after the crash, to show ACJC as the registered operator.
"Our involvement in yesterday was less than zero," ACJC chief executive Vas Nikolovski said.
Sources told the ABC the question of registration, however, is unlikely to affect the outcome of the investigation.
Mr Quartermain — who has been described as an experienced and trusted pilot — was the co-owner of Corporate and Leisure Aviation, which had hired the plane for a charter flight.
Preliminary crash report to be completed within 28 days
Four Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) investigators are at the crash site, and are likely to remain there for several days.
ATSB chief commissioner Greg Hood said forensic examinations would then be conducted off-site and a preliminary report into the crash would be completed within 28 days.
"We're very much in the gathering of evidence phase," he said.
Police Superintendent Mick Frewen said police would produce a brief for the coroner including information from eyewitness accounts, CCTV footage, and details posted on social media.
He called on anyone with information to get in contact with authorities.
"We will be working closely with the ATSB over the course of the investigation," he said.
He said it could take some time for the investigation to be completed.
Essendon Airport, often used to transport freight, was closed today out of respect for the victims and their families.
Only essential emergency services were allowed access and a flag on the grounds was flown at half-mast.
It will reopen tomorrow at 6:00am, an airport spokesman said.
A DFO spokeswoman said the shopping centre, and an adjacent homewares centre, would remain closed "until further notice".
The Bulla Road entry ramp inbound onto the Tullamarine Freeway remains closed during investigations.
Topics: disasters-and-accidents, accidents, air-and-space, essendon-3040
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