Several Dead after Light Planes Collided in Australia

Police and firefighters stand near where a few people have died after two light planes collided midair and crashed into a forested area southwest of Sydney, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (Dean Lewins/AAP Image via AP)
Police and firefighters stand near where a few people have died after two light planes collided midair and crashed into a forested area southwest of Sydney, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (Dean Lewins/AAP Image via AP)
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Several Dead after Light Planes Collided in Australia

Police and firefighters stand near where a few people have died after two light planes collided midair and crashed into a forested area southwest of Sydney, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (Dean Lewins/AAP Image via AP)
Police and firefighters stand near where a few people have died after two light planes collided midair and crashed into a forested area southwest of Sydney, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (Dean Lewins/AAP Image via AP)

Three men died after two light planes collided midair and crashed into a forested area southwest of Sydney on Saturday.

Australian police, fire and ambulance crews reached the two wreckage sites, located in a semirural bushland area about 55 miles southwest of Sydney, on foot. One plane had burst into flames on impact, The AP reported.

New South Wales Police Acting Superintendent Timothy Calman confirmed that a Cessna 182 carrying two people collided with an ultralight aircraft from a nearby airfield carrying one.

Further details of the victims have not been disclosed.

Witnesses saw “debris coming from the sky” and tried to help, but “there was probably not much that could’ve been done,” Calman said to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation . He noted both crashes, about one kilometer apart, were “not survivable.”

NSW Ambulance Inspector Joseph Ibrahim, part of the emergency response team, said to the ABC, “unfortunately, there was nothing they could’ve done.”

The cause of the crash will be investigated by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.



Prince William Says Visit With Diana to Homeless Shelter Was Eye-Opener

This handout photograph released by Kensington Palace on October 25, 2024, shows Britain's Princess Diana (2R) with her 11-year-old son William (L), now Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales in the kitchens during one of his first visits to homelessness charity, The Passage in London, taken on December 14, 1993.. (Photo by THE PASSAGE / AFP)
This handout photograph released by Kensington Palace on October 25, 2024, shows Britain's Princess Diana (2R) with her 11-year-old son William (L), now Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales in the kitchens during one of his first visits to homelessness charity, The Passage in London, taken on December 14, 1993.. (Photo by THE PASSAGE / AFP)
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Prince William Says Visit With Diana to Homeless Shelter Was Eye-Opener

This handout photograph released by Kensington Palace on October 25, 2024, shows Britain's Princess Diana (2R) with her 11-year-old son William (L), now Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales in the kitchens during one of his first visits to homelessness charity, The Passage in London, taken on December 14, 1993.. (Photo by THE PASSAGE / AFP)
This handout photograph released by Kensington Palace on October 25, 2024, shows Britain's Princess Diana (2R) with her 11-year-old son William (L), now Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales in the kitchens during one of his first visits to homelessness charity, The Passage in London, taken on December 14, 1993.. (Photo by THE PASSAGE / AFP)

Prince William has recalled how his late mother Princess Diana took him to a shelter for homeless people when he was just 11 years old, saying how the visit opened his eyes to how others lived a different life to him.
In an extract from a documentary about his efforts to end homelessness to be broadcast this week, the heir to the British throne said how Diana introduced him and his younger brother Prince Harry to the cause as part of her determination to raise wider awareness of social issues from AIDS to mental health, Reuters said.
"I'd never been to anything like that before, and I was a bit anxious as to what to expect. My mother went about her usual part of making everyone feel relaxed and having a laugh and joking with everyone," William said of the 1993 visit to The Passage charity in London.
Last June, the elder son of King Charles launched a five-year project "Homewards" which he said was inspired by Diana.
Homeless charities say it is hard to know exactly how many people are living on the streets but statistics released this month said 178,560 households were assessed as homeless in England in 2023-24, up 12.3% on the year before.
In focusing on homelessness, William said he was "desperately trying to help people who are in need, and I see that as part of my role".
He recalled during his visit to The Passage playing chess and chatting with those there.
"That's when it informed me that there are other people out there who don't have the same life as you do," he says in the documentary. "When you're quite small ... you just think life is what you see in front of you. You don't really have concept to look elsewhere.
"And it's when you meet people that I did then who put a different perspective in your head and say ... I was living on the street last night."
The full ITV documentary, "Prince William: We Can End Homelessness", will be shown on Oct. 30 and 31.