Training Plane Hits a Car on MacIntyre Lane at Lilydale Airport, Sending Two People to Hospital

A single-engine Piper PA-28 on a training flight struck a car beside Lilydale Airport in Yering, northeast of Melbourne, at about 2:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. Two people were taken to hospital with head injuries, and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has opened an investigation.

The car, a white Volkswagen, was on MacIntyre Lane, the public road beside the airfield. The Country Fire Authority told the ABC that its crews found a plane that “had come in to land had clipped a car.”

What officials have confirmed

Ambulance Victoria said Advanced Life Support paramedics attended and assessed four people. A woman in her 60s and a man in his 70s were taken by road ambulance to Maroondah Hospital, both with head injuries and in a stable condition, and the other two did not need emergency care or transport.

ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said the aircraft was substantially damaged but that no injuries were reported among the people on board. He said the car’s occupant, a member of the public, reportedly suffered serious injuries.

The ABC reported that the aircraft belongs to Lilydale Flying School and that two people were aboard for the training flight. The school had not responded to the ABC’s request for comment, and AeroCorner has found no official source naming the aircraft’s registration.

According to 7NEWS, the people in the plane were out of it by the time emergency crews arrived, and the State Emergency Service helped get one person out of the car. A witness, Sam Theobald, said the SUV looked as if another car had hit it side-on, except that no other car was there.

Aerial pictures showed the SUV with a cracked windscreen and a damaged hood. Yahoo News Australia reported that the aircraft came to rest in a paddock with one wing missing.

Yarra Valley police closed MacIntyre Lane between Victoria Road and the Melba Highway and diverted traffic. Daily Mail Australia, in a copy carried by MSN, reported the road had reopened by 4:30 p.m.

That report also said three of the four people paramedics assessed were believed to have been in the plane, which does not match the ABC and ATSB accounts of two people aboard with no injuries. Ambulance Victoria did not say which of its two hospital patients had been in the car.

A grass airfield with a road next door

Lilydale Airport is a privately owned airfield about 4 miles (6 km) north of the town of Lilydale, in the Yarra Valley. It opened in 1968 and is used for flight training, charter, aircraft rental and skydiving.

It has two parallel grass runways: 18R/36L at 4,429 feet (1,350 m) and 18L/36R at 2,789 feet (850 m). The airport’s own information page says it sits on MacIntyre Lane, halfway between Lilydale and Yarra Glen, and that visiting pilots need prior permission to land.

The road has featured in an accident there before. In March 2018 a Cessna 340 touched down well along the shorter runway on a wet, windless day, ran off the end, hit an embankment, crossed a road and stopped against a fence; its pilot was not hurt.

That kind of overrun is the scenario runway length margins exist to absorb. On Tuesday, though, the fire service’s description points to a car struck on the way in, not an aircraft leaving the runway.

Whether the PA-28 was landing or taking off is still not settled in the public record. Some outlets said it was unclear, and the ATSB statements quoted so far do not name the phase of flight.

The PA-28 is the Piper Aircraft family that includes the Cherokee, Warrior and Archer, a common sight at flying schools. The ATSB described this one only as a single-engine PA-28, so the exact model is not yet public.

What happens next

Mitchell said the ATSB began the investigation “in line with its commitment to prioritise commercial aviation operations.” That wording places this training flight among the operations the bureau puts first when it decides which accidents to investigate.

He added that the aircraft would be moved to a secure place for further examination if needed. AeroCorner set out how the bureau runs a light-aircraft case, from preliminary to final report, after last month’s fatal crash at the Wanaaring airstrip in outback NSW.

The open questions are the aircraft’s path on the approach or departure, where the car was relative to the runway end, and how traffic on MacIntyre Lane is kept clear of aircraft at low height. AeroCorner will update this story if the ATSB or Lilydale Flying School releases more detail.