Severe damage to seaplane
A SEAPLANE that crashed into a river north of Sydney on New Year’s Eve suffered “severe damage” when it struck the water, authorities said after recovering most of the wreckage.
The fuselage, one wing and the floats of the DHC-2 Beaver were hauled on to a barge in Jerusalem Bay during a daylong retrieval operation that used slings and a crane.
“From the time the wreckage was brought on the barge, we saw that there was severe damage to the plane, and it appeared there’d been quite an impact on hitting the water,” Superintendent Mark Hutchings said yesterday.
Police divers — working in zero visibility at a depth of almost 15m — and barge operators were still retrieving the final pieces of the plane that crashed on December 31 killing five British tourists and the Canadian pilot.
The Beaver is a Canadianbuilt aircraft and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said its Canadian counterpart would assist during the 12month investigation into Sunday’s crash.
The wreckage of the Beaver will be taken by barge to Bayview where it will be placed on a truck and taken to a secure facility to be examined by bureau investigators.
They will “carefully assess all aspects related to the aircraft’s airworthiness”, a spokeswoman said in a statement, adding the bureau would “examine in detail the history of this aircraft”.
Experienced Canadian pilot Gareth Morgan died along with high-profile UK businessman Richard Cousins, his two adult sons Edward and William, his fiancee Emma Bowden and her 11-year-old daughter Heather when the plane plunged into Jerusalem Bay on the Hawkesbury River.
It was revealed yesterday the plane was involved in a fatal crash, killing its pilot, when it was used as a crop duster in November 1996.