Crossword Genius

Plane crash reaches agreement on a penitentiary (5,10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

penal settlement

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'a penitentiary' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'plane crash reaches agreement' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
an anagram of 'plane' is 'penal' which is within the answer.
'agreement' could be 'settlement' (settlement is a kind of agreement) and 'settlement' is present in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'on' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for penal settlement that I've seen is " place housing convicts".)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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