At 0930hrs this morning, Rivers was asked to despatch members as part of an ACTSES air search team, after a man went missing in his Cessna plane after taking off from remote property. The ACTSES and neighbour NSW SES Unit of Queanbeyan, are often used by the Canberra-based Australian Maritime Safety Authority as air observers in air searches up and down the eastern seaboard and out to sea.

 

The search area was western NSW between Broken Hill and Mildura in Victoria. By 1100h, the crew of 17 was assembled and ready for action. Half an hour later, the search was called off after the plane was spotted by a search crew in a dam approx 110 km south of Broken Hill, not far from where he had taken off. At the time of writing this article police is en route to the crash site and the man is still missing.