Upset … Joe Gordon said he feared that a stunt plane was about to crash into his house on By Nathan Johnston
A NOBLE Park man feared for his life on Friday during the prerace entertainment at the Sandown 500.
Joe Gordon said the pilot of a stunt plane shut its engine off directly above his house, allowing the machine to free fall to within seconds of crashing into his backyard.
Mr Gordon said he had complained to the City of Greater Dandenong before about the noise levels of the cars and the increasing number of race meetings each year.
But he said the stunt plane was his worst experience in 37 years of living across the road from the track.
“It was too scary to be true. It was dropping directly above my house, and then it kept coming back for more.
“It was spinning round and around out of control. I was crying out to my wife to get out of the house,” Mr Gordon said.
A Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) spokesman said the organisation was aware of the complaint and said the pilot had been interviewed.
He said the pilot had a permit to perform the stunts over the racetrack.
“(The pilot) is quite distressed about the allegations. He stressed he took particular care because if he was found to be acting outside the guidelines he faces the risk of losing income,” the spokesman said.
“It may have appeared that it was directly above Mr Gordon’s house, but the pilot claims this was not the case.
“We have our own internal process and we will continue to investigate.”
Mr Gordon said he was considering selling up and moving away from Noble Park.
“My wife doesn’t want to live here any more. You can accept that it’s going to happen a few weeks of the year, but not every weekend which is what is happening,” he said.
“There used to be three of four weekends a year where it would be used, but now it’s about 30 weekends a year.”
He said the weekend’s Sandown 500 was the biggest and loudest event of the year.
“It was like a war zone. I had three days of helicopters, war planes and car racing.”
City of Greater Dandenong director of city development Mal Baker said the noise readings taken from the Sandown 500 did not exceed the permit levels.
Mayor Maria Sampey said she wanted to know who set the guidelines as to what noise level was acceptable.
“I had that many residents complaining. Whoever sets the levels as the standard rate obviously doesn’t live next to a race track,” she said.
