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MELBOURNE - Four people on a birthday flight miraculously escaped serious injury when a light plane crash-landed in the seaside Victorian holiday town of Sorrento.
The pilot and three passengers were pulled from the wreck of the single-engined plane after it tried to land on a golf course but came down on a road just short of the Sorrento Golf Club.
Police said the pilot, believed to be in his 30s, and his passengers, a man and two women aged in their 40s and 50s, were taken to two local hospitals with minor injuries.
"From the initial reports we got, it was a very lucky escape," said Metropolitan Ambulance Service spokesman James Howe.
Police said the pilot was able to deliberately detach the wings from the fuselage as the plane, believed to be a Piper Warrior, crash-landed - significantly reducing the risk of fire as the wings carry the plane's fuel.
Senior Constable Adam West said the flight had been purchased as a birthday present for one of the passengers and took off from Moorabbin Airport, in southeastern Melbourne, bound for the coastal town of Anglesea, west of Geelong.
On its return flight from Anglesea, the plane encountered engine problems and the pilot made the decision to make a forced landing on the Mornington Peninsula.
- AAP
