Blackhawk called in for police operation that closed Great Western Highway

The highway was closed at Glanmire, just east of Bathurst, for around 10 minutes on March 28.

A Blackhawk Helicopter was used to winch the light plane out of the paddock it landed in three weeks earlier.

The plane was taken to Bathurst airport, only a short distance from the scene. NSW Police have been contacted for comment, but the disruption for the highway was minimal.

A pilot has had a lucky escape after an emergency landing in a paddock.

Police and other emergency services were called to Glanmire, 15 kilometres east of Bathurst, on March 8, 2024 after eyewitness Warrick Osborne raised the alarm on his drive home that evening.

Mr Osborne said he came around a crest along the Great Western Highway and saw the plane just 50 feet above him.

"I was on my way home at Glanmire and came over the crest and there was a plane virtually flying towards me at about 50 foot from the ground," he said.

"Then it skimmed over the top of some powerlines, going into a house and then landed in the paddock, 50 metres off the highway."

He said he literally couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"First off, when I saw the plane down that low, I thought he was crop dusting, but then thought, 'Gee, he's down low'," Mr Osborne said.

"Then I thought, 'No, I've lived out here forever and there's no crop in that paddock and he's not crop dusting'.

"And I thought, 'Hang on' ... and it was a bit too big as well. It was a twin engine plane, and then I thought, 'He's nearly coming straight towards me', and he veered and went parallel with the highway and down he came.

"And I was watching the whole lot.

"I just couldn't believe what I was seeing."

"I turned the car around and rang triple zero. I was on the phone to them for a fair while.

"There was a barbed wire fence so I couldn't get over to the plane, but triple zero were asking me questions.

"They were saying, 'Can you see anyone?', and I said, 'Yep', and could see he was okay."

They asked him other questions about fire risks and fuel.

"I never went to the plane, emergency services did. I was talking to the police out on the highway; there was nothing more I could do."

With police already in the area, due to an earlier car crash at Kirkconnell, it wasn't long before emergency services arrived, though more resources were sent from Bathurst station.

"The emergency services I was talking to came from Bathurst," Mr Osborne said.

"They weren't too far behind."

Mr Osborne commended the pilot on his landing.

"Unbelievable," he said.

"The nose went down at the end, but luckily it was a nice big paddock, no trees. The grass was about three foot high; luckily it's a clear paddock.

"He had a pretty soft landing, but he did well.

"It was unbelievable."

A spokesperson for police said the pilot undertook the emergency landing at around 5.40pm.

The spokesperson said the pilot was the sole occupant of the small commercial aircraft, and was not injured in the incident.

While police attended the scene, the spokesperson said, as no one was injured, they are not required to investigate.