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PNG plane crash pilot son of explorer 17:14 AEST Thu Dec 31 20091 hour 40 minutes agoBy Gabrielle Dunlevy

The Australian pilot fighting for his life after a plane crash in Papua New Guinea is the son of noted PNG highlands explorer Mick Leahy.

Richard Leahy, 68, is in a critical but stable condition in Royal Brisbane Hospital after a crash that killed six people.

The Kiunga Aviation operator was flying a Cessna light plane on Wednesday when the engine caught fire above mountainous terrain in Morobe Province, on PNG's northwest coast.

Two children are believed to be among the dead, while Mr Leahy suffered a fractured spine and third degree burns to 47 per cent of his body.

Mick Leahy and his brother Dan were among the first Westerners to enter the Wahgi Valley, in Papua New Guinea's western highlands.

The Leahys' expedition in 1933 is the subject of the 1983 documentary First Contact.

In an undated interview with website pacificwrecks.org, Richard Leahy said he had repatriated around 30 American and Australian MIA (missing in action) aircraft since the mid-1970s.

Born in Sydney in 1941, Mr Leahy went to Papua New Guinea weeks later with his mother, only to be evacuated due to WWII early in 1942.

His father joined the RAAF and served in Papua New Guinea and later, the Philippines.

Mr Leahy told the website his fascination with WWII and flying stemmed from a 1947 family picnic at Nadzab air base, where a large number of aircraft had been dumped and scrapped.

He described his childhood home of Lae as "a little boy's heaven, and a mother's nightmare".

"There were tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition of all calibres laying around, mortar bombs, hand grenades, infantry weapons, trucks, jeeps, tanks and just about every kind of war machine material that you could possibly imagine," he said.

Mr Leahy completed his flying training in Brisbane in 1960 and began flying Cessnas three years after gaining his commercial licence in 1968.

THE governor of the Papua New Guinea province where veteran Australian pilot Richard Leahy made a miraculous escape from a plane crash a week ago wants him charged with manslaughter.

Politician and one-time acting judge Luther Wenge said the six Papua New Guineans who died in the crash were relatives of his.

He said Mr Leahy, 68, had to return to face charges, to pay compensation, and then to leave -- after spending almost his entire life in PNG, where he is a permanent resident.

Mr Wenge warned: "I will deal with him. No stones will be left unturned. I do not want to see his face here."

He said Mr Leahy, whose single-engined Cessna was one of three planes in the fleet of his Kiunga Airlines, "was operating for the sake of money".

The plane was too old, Mr Wenge claimed.

The Civil Aviation Authority in PNG has only just begun to investigate the crash.

Mr Leahy remains in an induced coma at Royal Brisbane Hospital as his many injuries are treated. He is the oldest son of famous PNG explorer Mick Leahy. Many other members of the family remain residents of PNG: in Morobe, where Mr Leahy lives in the provincial capital Lae, and in the Highlands.

One of the most experienced pilots in PNG -- a notoriously challenging country in which to fly -- Mr Leahy sent a Mayday message when the engine failed as he was attempting to land on a grass strip in the rugged Sarawaget mountain range in Morobe. He was flung clear of the plane, the only survivor.

His son Nick said Mr Wenge's comments were "unfounded but understandable". He said Kiunga Aviation had already met the victims' families, and was doing what it could to help them.

Mr Wenge, who almost bankrupted the PNG economy when he won a court action declaring its goods and services tax unconstitutional, also succeeded in legally overturning immunity granted to Australian police deployed to PNG in 2005.

At a rally then, he urged people to "visit all government offices and chase away any Australian officers employed there".