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Lucas Di Biase, a young man with dreams of soaring through the skies, recently celebrated a significant milestone by graduating at the top of his class. Yet, the promising pilot’s life was tragically cut short, leaving his family grappling with the loss.
“From the time he was just a toddler, all Lucas ever wanted was to become a pilot,” his heartbroken family shared, highlighting his lifelong passion for aviation.
Lucas’s family remembers him with fondness and sorrow, saying, “Forever in our hearts. Forever 20. Fly high, our beautiful boy.”
In a cruel twist of fate, Lucas found himself aboard a flight on Friday that he wasn’t originally scheduled to be on. Ever the eager aviator, he didn’t hesitate to take the opportunity to jump in the back seat.
He was slated to embark on a new journey the following day, heading to Darwin to pursue his dreams. Accompanying him on this exciting chapter was to be one of his closest friends, Savvas Tsambarlis.
“He was just so in love with it and he was so attached to all sorts of flying and he definitely wanted to one day be an airline pilot,” Tsambarlis said.
“He was a great mate, he was funny, he was always having a laugh as much as we would talk about flying he was always good to talk to about everything else.”
Also onboard the ill-fated training flight was 18-year-old Tristan Scheffers.
A video from his family showed his love of flying from a young age.
He’d just finished year 12 and was on his way to earning his commercial pilot licence.
His shattered dad paid tribute.
“Our beautiful boy who loved flying more than anything else spread his wings one last time on Friday,” he said.
Experienced pilot and instructor Leo Howard, described as “one of the best”, was also killed.
An investigation is under way.
“There’ll be a thorough investigation by CASA but I think now more than anything else is about the community getting around the families of those who’ve lost their lives,” South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said.