Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigate crash as Redcliffe Aero Club mourn loss of member

The Canberra Times understands a 65-year-old man, Peter Nally, and his three grandchildren aged 11, nine and six were killed when the plane crashed and caught alight in a paddock at Gundaroo on Friday afternoon.

In a statement issued on Sunday morning, the family of those killed said there were "no words to describe the grief our family is feeling at this time".

"We are appreciative of the overwhelming support we continue to receive from our extended family and friends as well as the local community," the statement read.

Brisbane-based Redcliffe Aero Club expressed its deepest condolences to the family of Mr Nally, a highly experienced pilot, and his grandchildren.

"The pilot was active in the social side of the club with many hours of flying experience. The aircraft was privately owned and not operated by the club," the club's vice-president Sam Keenan said in a statement.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said on Saturday that teams are already at the site and labelled the circumstances as tragic.

"This will be a difficult undertaking given how burnt the wreckage is. But over the coming days, I am fully confident that the investigators will gather as much information and evidence as they can from the accident site," the bureau's Colin McNamara said.

The bureau's crews will monitor for spilled chemicals, burnt carbon fibre and possible explosive materials and called for any witnesses to come forward.

"These are indeed tragic circumstances exacerbated by the news that children have been involved," he said.

He also asked for any other witnesses to the crash to contact the bureau.

"Yesterday we were contacted by a number of witnesses which we're very appreciative about. It does prompt me to say, if anyone has relevant information pertaining to this accident, please go to our website."

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Mr McNamara said in coming days engineers will study the plane's maintenance log as well as the flight history of the pilot.

Flight information shows the single-engine aircraft arrived in Canberra on Wednesday after travelling via Armidale from Redcliffe, north of Brisbane.

It's understood the plane vanished from radar screens 16 minutes after taking off on Friday.

The light plane crashed on the Hadlow Drive property, about 30km north-east of Canberra, just before 3pm Friday.

The single-engine aircraft, registration VH-MSF, exploded on impact at around 2.50pm. Police said there were no survivors, and formally identifying those killed could take weeks because of the severity of the tragedy.

The plane is registered to Up N Up Aviation Pty Ltd, which is based in North Lakes, Queensland.

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