“It appears to be in pieces, I don’t see any people.”

That was the report called in by a light plane flying over South Lake yesterday afternoon after a home-made plane crashed and burst into flames on a suburban oval.

We now know the two occupants of the plane, Tony White and Ralph Lerch escaped but are in hospital with severe burns. Herald reader Jack Martin was on the scene shortly after where he took these pictures.

Mr Martin, whose Facebook page reveals he’s a planespotter extraordinaire, tells us the crashed aircraft was a ‘Glasair III’ registered ‘VH-USW’.

Photos by Jack Rhys Martin