When Thomas Murfett sensed something was wrong with his plane on Saturday morning, he did what any experienced pilot would.
The 63-year-old circled around the Muchea airfield where he had just taken off and looked for a suitable place to land.
But as the RV-6A light aircraft that he built himself 30 years ago began to stall, he realised he had no hope of making it back to the airstrip.
“He was just doing a few practice circuits before he and his friend were going to fly to Bunbury,” Murfett’s wife Melanie said.
“On the second round they felt that something wasn’t right with the aircraft so they came back around to look for somewhere to land. When he knew he wasn’t going to make the runway, he started worrying about people on the ground as he was right next to the Brand Highway.”
Murfett - who crash-landed in a paddock - told his wife that he didn’t have much time to think “or do - your body just takes over and you just do what you can”.
The pilot, who has decades of experience, told her he could feel that something “felt not quite right” but that what happened after was a blur.
The next thing he knew was that he had crash-landed and he couldn’t get out of the wreckage.
Murfett suffered a broken arm in the crash that needs surgery, a broken leg “that will take a couple of surgeries”, five broken ribs, a lung puncture and a fractured back.
His friend, who was a passenger in the plane with him on Friday, also suffered broken ribs but has already been discharged from hospital.
Murfett, however, is bed-bound and “in pretty good spirits”.
“He’s just laying back and [saying] ‘I don’t have to do anything, everyone is waiting on me now’,” Melanie laughed, before adding that he will “probably” go up in a plane again as soon as he’s able.
Police were called to Muchea just before 10.30am on Saturday morning with reports that a single-engine light aircraft had crashed near a private airfield off Brand Highway near Nolan Road.
Melanie thanked everyone that rushed to help Murfett get medical assistance he needed, including emergency services.
With 9 News Perth.