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Locals who saw the door from a small plane plummet towards a Far South Coast beach, landing just metres from fisherman, say it was "a crazy situation to witness".
Murphy Shaw was enjoying a morning surf at South Broulee when a small aircraft flying overhead lost its door.
"It looked like it was coming straight towards the surf," Mr Shaw said.
Panic set in for the surfers when they realised the door looked like it was going to fall on a lone fisherman on the empty beach.
"Everyone in the water tried to get the attention of this bloke who was fishing because it became pretty evident that we could witness something pretty horrible … we nearly did."
Murphy Shaw saw the door land in the beach's shrubs. (ABC South East NSW: James Tugwell)
Mr Shaw said he saw the door land roughly in coastal scrub 20 metres from the fisherman, but despite a "big bang", he appeared "not fazed at all".
"He just went about his business — cool as a cucumber, really ," he said.
'Really lucky' nobody got hurt
Josh Waterson heard the hum of the plane flying over his Broulee home last Friday morning.
"Then the noise [of the plane] actually stopped — and that's what caught my attention, that instant change in pitch," he said.
Josh Waterson says the door took around 30 seconds to fall through the sky. (Supplied: Josh Waterson)
Mr Waterson looked up to see an object flying through the air, knowing his daughter had just left for a swim at the beach.
"I called her and said, 'Watch out … there's a door coming'," he said.
The door hit the beach about 50 metres south of her, according to Mr Waterson.
"I think we're just really lucky that the door landed on the beach and no one got hurt," he said.
The small aircraft turned back towards Moruya Airport after the door became dislocated. (Flightrader24)
What happened to the door?
The door came from a privately owned American RV-10 four-seater plane and the pilot and passenger landed safely after the incident.
Eurobodalla Shire Council told the ABC in a statement that the pilot told airport staff "the door latch was not secured properly".
"[The pilot] apologised for any anxiety the incident may have caused," the statement read.
The pilot declined a request for comment.
The pilot and the passenger landed safely at Moruya Airport. (ABC South East NSW: James Tugwell)
Soon after the door landed, surfer Murphy Shaw said it was carried away.
"Five minutes later, someone had picked up the door and was walking out of the beach, carrying it over their head, almost like an old longboard," he said.
"It was a crazy situation to witness."
The ABC understands the door was returned to the airport.
'Extremely rare'
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of Australia chief executive Benjamin Morgan said such incidents were "extremely rare".
"What's important in issues like that … is that we just get to the bottom of exactly why it's happened," he said.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau told the ABC it would "not conduct an investigation as it would be unlikely to yield any new safety lessons".
Mr Morgan said Australian aviation was subject to the highest aviation standards in the world.
"Australia has one of the best general aviation safety records anywhere in the world and aircraft are supported nationwide by a hugely professional field of licensed aircraft maintenance engineers," he said.