PLANE CRASH FAMILY DIED ON DREAM HOL
Tributes flood in after Aussie air trip horror
TRIBUTES have poured in for the Brit family who died in a New Year’s Eve plane crash.
Richard Cousins, 58, fiancée Emma Bowden, 48, her 11-year-old daughter Heather, and his sons William, 25, and Edward, 23, were all killed on a sightseeing flight in Australia.
Australian pilot Gareth Morgan, 44, also died when the single engine aircraft nosedived into the Hawkesbury River near Sydney and sank.
The family were on a holiday of a lifetime enjoying the Ashes series.
Cricket-loving millionaire Richard was chief executive of the Surrey-based, FTSE 100 firm Compass Group – the largest catering company in the world.
He was recently named as one of the world’s best-performing company chiefs by the Harvard Business Review.
He had been due to retire from his £7.5million-a-year job this summer.
Paul Walsh, Compass chairman, said he was “deeply shocked and saddened”.
He added: “Richard was known and respected for his great humanity and a nononsense style that transformed Compass into one of Britain’s leading companies.”
Surrey County Cricket Club chief executive Richard Gould also paid tribute to Richard, who was a regular at the Oval cricket ground.
His son William was press officer for Open Britain, which campaigns against a hard Brexit.
The group’s chairman Roland Rudd said he was “an extraordinary young man who took deep pride in his work” and would be “missed beyond words”. A host of Labour MPs said William, who worked on the Remain campaign during the referendum, was “exceptionally talented” and an “absolute joy” to work with.
Emma had worked at OK! magazine for nearly 15 years.
Lovely
Neighbours at the family home in Tooting, south-west London, described how “distraught” relatives were seen entering the property on Sunday after hearing the news.
Resident Lata Maisuria said the “lovely and charming” family were “happy-go-lucky” and that Heather was “very happy” after recently starting at a local secondary school.
Det Supt Mark Hutchings, head of the New South Wales marine area command, said: “These people had come over on holiday to one of the most beautiful parts of the world, and for this to happen at a place like this is just tragic.”
A witness said he watched the plane fall from the sky and dived in, trying unsuccessfully to open the fuselage door because the plane was sinking so quickly.
The cause of the tragedy is not yet known.