AUTRALIA: Plane Crash Into Australian Shopping Mall

A pilot and four American passengers were killed on Tuesday when a small plane crashed in to the roof of a shopping mall after taking off from an airfield outside Melbourne, police said.

The twin-turboprop Beechcraft King Air plane suffered an engine failure and crashed into the mall near the end of the runway at Essendon Airport, Victoria state police assistant commissioner Stephen Leane told reporters in Melbourne.

The pilot managed to send an emergency call, describing a “catastrophic engine failure” before the fiery collision, police said. Witnesses said the plane exploded on impact.

The crash happened at around 9 a.m., about an hour before the mall was due to open and there were no fatalities other than those aboard the aircraft, the witness said.

“All five occupants were male – the pilot was Australian and the four passengers were from the United States of America,” Victoria police said in later statement.

Sky News showed burning wreckage strewn across the mall’s carpark and a thick column of black smoke rising from the crash site.

The plane had been bound for King Island in Bass Strait between the mainland and the southern island state of Tasmania and Australian newspapers reported that at least two of the men were traveling to play golf on the island’s famed links.

A spokeswoman for Airservices Australia said flights in and out of Melbourne’s main airport were unaffected. Essendon Airport, which is used mainly by light aircraft, remained closed.

Two New Golf Courses Expected To Drive Tourism Growth For King Island

A small remote Bass Strait island known for its windswept coastlines, prime beef and cheese is now gaining a reputation among golfers.

King Island, with a population of 1,400, has enhanced Tasmania's reputation as a golfing destination with the opening of two world-class courses.

The island's nine-hole course already has a good reputation.

Now the first nine holes of the Ocean Dunes course is ready for players, and on the island's northern tip, the 18-hole Cape Wickham Links has formally opened.

Buffeted by the Roaring Forties, Cape Wickham Links is the country's most anticipated new golf course.

Nine of the holes are coastal and all 18 have ocean vistas.

My feeling is that it will become a Mecca for golfing in the future - it might be a fair way away but it's going happen.Graeme Grant, course designer

American-based Mike De Vries designed the course, making the most of the natural windswept landscape.

Course superintendent John Geary said choosing the right grass for the greens was a challenge.

"The greens are a combination of fescue grasses, which is a little bit different than most golf courses have," he said.

"That grass type has been chosen specifically because of the windier conditions we have here.

"The actual contours on the greens are more subtle, so the golf course will be playable in any conditions.

"The course has exceptionally wide fairways and it is relatively short, so depending on the weather conditions good golfers will probably shoot some very low scores but it's been designed specifically with the weather conditions in mind."

Further south, Ocean Dunes has nine holes ready to play.

Designer Graeme Grant is creating a challenging 72-par layout.

"I saw this coastline four-and-half years ago for the first time and it reminded me of Scotland and Ireland, and that's where all the great links courses are," he said.

"I think that we'll find that if we are successful here and Cape Wickham is successful it will open up this coastline to other golfers and golfing people, golfing people that might want to do the same sort of development.

"My feeling is that it will become a Mecca for golfing in the future - it might be a fair way away, but it's going to happen."

More than 2,000 bookings already

Course director Richard Lees said the new courses would complement each other.

"The combination of the two courses here on King Island will really set this place up for golfers from all over the world to come and play," he said.

Cape Wickham general manager Debbie Fisher said bookings were already flooding in and augured well for the island's tourism.

"We've got well over 2,000 bookings from here to about April," she said.

"They're coming from all over the world - America, Germany, Sweden.

"Once Ocean Dunes gets up and running they'll come and stay the night, or two nights, and see more of the island.

"At the moment they're just flying in and flying out because there's not a lot of accommodation on the island but once we get our accommodation up and running we just want them to come and experience all of King Island."

Mr Grant said each King Island course had its own distinctive character.

"Links golf courses all vary because of the difference in the dunes and the difference in the vegetation and here it's the difference in the coastline," he said.

"We play very close to the water and over the water on two of par-threes."

The two courses are not expected to overshadow the popularity of the island's original course which has been operating since 1927.

The "old course", as locals are calling it, still has plenty of life in it yet.