About 5 minutes after his estimated arrival time the pilot reported that he was uncertain of his position. Attempts to locate the aircraft were unsuccessful until the pilot climbed to 6000 feet and 22 minutes after the initial call the aircraft was radar identified 78 kilometres north of Sydney. The aircraft was vectored towards Bankstown but about 9 kilometres from the aerodrome the pilot advised that the aircraft was out of fuel. A forced landing was carried out onto a suburban street, during which power lines and a power pole were struck. The aircraft had departed with adequate fuel to conduct the flight. The pilot had only limited experience with night operations and had not maintained a detailed navigation log. He had apparently not been aware of the critical fuel state of the aircraft until about 10 minutes before the engine failure, which occurred 56 minutes after the position uncertainty was reported.
