Wednesday 21 September 2022 02:32 AM Filmmaker Mathew Farrell had marriage papers for fiancee Karen Waller in ... trends now
An Australian filmmaker was carrying the marriage papers to wed his fiancee when he was killed in a light plane crash.
Mathew Farrell, 42, recently bought the Australian-made Jabiru 230D plane with wife-to-be and fellow pilot Kaz Waller after the TV cameraman gained his pilot's licence last year.
He set off from Mount Beauty airport near the couple's Tawonga home in northeast Victoria on Sunday to fly 420km to Wollongong to help his prospective father-in-law fix a roof.
In his pocket he was carrying the paperwork to marry Ms Waller, friends revealed - but never reached his destination and a huge search was launched.
Australian filmmaker Mathew Marrell who died in remote wilderness in Victoria's high country was carrying the marriage papers to wed his fiancee Kaz Waller when his light plane crashed
Rescuers found Mr Farrell's body with the remains of the plane in dense bushland about 60km away, near Lucyvale in the Victorian Alps at 10am on Monday.
His grieving fiancee is being comforted by friends and family and has been flooded with messages of support and condolences.
She posted a haunting pic of Mr Farrell with their dog in the high country on social media in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
'I call them the shiniest couple I've ever met, they were just so perfectly matched and amazing,' close friend and collaborator Brad Harris told the ABC.
'They were planning on getting married, he had the papers in the plane with him.
'It's a tragedy that she only got a year with him - they were just so perfectly suited, perhaps more than any couple I've ever met in my life.'
Fiancee Kaz Waller posted a haunting pic of Mathew Farrell with their dog in the high country on social media in the early hours of Wednesday morning
Mr Harris said the adventure-seeking ABC, BBC and Discovery channel TV veteran was an experienced aviator after years of paragliding.
He speculated that the weather may have turned worse than expected during the flight, with bad weather hampering the hunt for the missing plane on Sunday.
'He was a very thorough, very technically-minded kind of guy,' Mr Harris said.
'His aeronautical knowledge was pretty fantastic - he was a very, very good paraglider pilot and he flew model planes from when he was young and was always interested and involved in aviation.'
The Tasmanian's passion for life took him from the deserts of Morocco to the tundra of the Antarctic, developing skills as a polar explorer, mountaineering guide, and zodiac boat driver.
'He was an adventurer. He was used to taking risks and confronting risks and confronting fear, just like all outdoorsy people,' Mr Harris added.
'It's something that you do and it's very calculated - it's not reckless.'
Mr Farrell recently worked on The Amazing Race for Channel Ten and joked online last month that he didn't even own a working television to watch it.
Thrill-seeking film-maker Mathew Farrell has died after the light plane he was piloting crashed
