General News
21 August, 2025
Robbie Katter shaken after runway incident in Mount Isa
The Member for Traeger, his wife Daisy, and his parliamentary chief of staff were in an incident on Wednesday morning.
State MP Robbie Katter has walked away shaken but unhurt after he crashed shortly after landing at Mount Isa Airport on Wednesday morning.
The Member for Traeger was returning from a busy few days in the Gulf when he had an incident involving his landing gear on the runway.
Sitting in the plane with Mr Katter were his wife Daisy, and his parliamentary chief of staff, Cameron Parker.
"I had a few days in the Gulf, and I had my wife in-flight and another staff member with me ... I had three days of good flying, really," the MP told North West Weekly.
"There was a lot of crosswind activity, so I probably had my work cut out for me. And that usually keeps you a bit more vigilant.
"After coming into land, I had actually done a go around, which is pretty rare, and I'd say mostly on account of just the shifting wind.
"But unrelated to that, really, after landing the plane safely, I had an incident while taxiing. It worked out really badly in terms of me doing severe damage to the aircraft.
"Luckily, all passengers walked away safely.
"A friend of mine at the Royal Flying Doctor Service was coincidentally observing what had happened and raced straight over and gave us help.
"Obviously, Daisy was very shook up, highly stressed. I was fine and the other passenger was fine. So, it was just a matter of cleaning up the mess from there."
It's the second time Mr Katter has had an incident in his plane, a 1985 Mooney M-20 four-seater.
In May 2023, the Katter's Australian Party leader was returning from Charters Towers and about to land in Mount Isa when he realised at the last moment that his wheels were still up and had to land on the plane's undercarriage.
"I'd had a big week in [regional] parliament, I'd worked all weekend, and was trying to get home on the Sunday afternoon," he told the ABC at the time.
"It was a lapse in concentration and I've paid a big price.
"Sadly, it does happen in aviation. I never thought it could happen to me."
In the lead-up to Wednesday's incident, Mr Katter had flown his plane throughout the electorate.
On Monday, he took off from Mount Isa from Doomadgee and travelled to Burketown, Mornington Island and Normanton before he left the Gulf at 9.30am on Wednesday, bound for home.
"The overwhelming feeling is embarrassment," he said after his latest incident.
"Your failures are right there for everyone to see. I really work hard on my competency as a pilot, and to have sort of a catastrophic failure like that, it really knocks you around."
Mr Katter said he would now reassess his travel plans, admitting his confidence had been shaken.
"I've got to really think about my safety and my family," he said.
"At the same time, I'm pretty committed to the work I'm doing. It's hard to do that effectively without (flying). I've become accustomed to having that mobility and I just don't have the travel allowance to do the same through charter operations.
"Do I keep flying? At this point, I'm pretty committed to doing that. I think mainly because I'm pretty committed to the job I'm doing, and I just can't see how I function without it."
Mr Katter said he had contacted the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and his insurance company following the incident.