Former Solicitor-General of Queensland Walter Sofronoff walks unharmed after ... - Courier Mail

The light plane crash near the Toowoomba airport. Pic Channel Nine Source: Supplied

Walter Sofronoff QC who recently resigned as Queensland Solicitor General. Photographer: Liam Kidston. Source: News Corp Australia

QUEENSLAND’S former solicitor general Walter Sofronoff has miraculously walked away from a plane crash “without a scratch’’ after his Tiger Moth ploughed through a fence and hit a tree, coming to rest metres from a major highway.

Mr Sofronoff was alone in the biplane when it crashed around noon, shortly after takeoff.

Emergency services personnel said the QC was lucky to escape injury after the plane crashed only two or three metres from the Warrego Highway in Toowoomba.

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“For some reason, the aircraft wouldn’t gain height or speed and the cross wind pushed me into the fence next the airstrip,’’ Mr Sofronoff told The Sunday Mail.

“The aeroplane is very badly damaged but I walked away without a scratch.

“Any landing you walk away from is a good landing.’’

Mr Sofronoff has been flying planes for 14 years. He bought the 1940s de Havilland Tiger Moth around 18 months ago.

The barrister said he regularly performs aerobatics at Watts Bridge, near Toogoolawah in the Brisbane Valley, on Saturday afternoons.

Mr Sofronoff’s plane crashed during takeoff at Toowoomba’s airport, about 100km from Watts Bridge, where he planned to fly.

He was able to free himself from the wreckage and walked back to a hangar.

“I was not going very fast and I was on the air strip – nothing terrible was going to happen,’’ he said.

Walter Sofronoff off to court. Source: News Limited

“A lot of traffic stopped. People were very helpful.

“They are beautiful objects, beautiful pieces of craft. It’s just a joy to be up in the sky, in the sunshine, spinning around. People say it’s dangerous, but everything is a little bit dangerous.’’

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Anzac Avenue station officer Tony Guse said Mr Sofronoff had a “very lucky’’ escape.

“Any aircraft that sustains that amount of damage, you are very lucky to walk away without any real injuries,’’ he said.

Mr Guse said the plane was hit by a cross wind, which pushed it off the runway and into a fence.

“Witnesses say he actually came very close to making a correction after the first wind gusts caught him,’’ he said. “But then a second wind gust hit the plane and that’s what pushed him across