Another UK family died in same type of Sydney plane
THE same model of seaplane that crashed, killing five Britons including a FTSE-100 CEO, had caused the deaths of another UK family two years before, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
Air accident investigators in Australia are examining the wreckage of the De Havilland DHC-2 Beaver to determine why it nosedived into a river outside Sydney, killing all on board.
The 55-year-old seaplane had been chartered on New Year’s Eve by Richard Cousins, the retiring chief executive of the £25 billion Compass catering group. The same model of aircraft had crashed in Canada in August 2015, after stalling during a steep turn while on a sightseeing trip. In that accident, Fiona Hewitt, 52, her husband Richard, 50, and children Harry, 14 and Felicity, 17, all from Milton Keynes, died, along with the pilot.
The DHC-2 seaplanes are known as “flying antiques” and require rigorous safety checks. A report by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) published in September details 31 deaths in nine separate fatal incidents involving the DHC-2 Beaver stalling. It reported another three crashes in which there were no fatalities.
In its main recommendation, the TSB required that all commercial DHC2S in Canada be fitted with a stall warning alarm. It is not clear if the Australian seaplane had such a system fitted, although its operator Sydney Seaplanes states on its website that its DHC-2S are “equipped with the latest technology”.
The Canadian report quotes from the original airworthiness report, from 1945, which says that the seaplane “has a tendency to roll” during a stall.
In the Canadian crash in 2015, the aircraft “stalled in a steep turn” and hit a rocky outcrop, killing the Hewitt family, who were on a tour of Quebec. Eyewitnesses to the Australian tragedy
said the plane had made a “sharp turn” before nosediving into the water.
Aaron Shaw, who is the managing director of Sydney Seaplanes, said that the cause of the crash was a mystery and that no emergency call is believed to have been made.
Mr Shaw also stressed that his company, which had been operating since 2005, had a previously “unblemished safety record” and that “the safety of our passengers and staff is our absolute primary and highest priority”.
He added that weather conditions for the flight were “perfect”, the plane’s engines had been checked, and that the pilot, Gareth Morgan, was experienced and under no pressure.
Mr Shaw said that Mr Morgan had recorded more than 10,000 flying hours, including 9,000 on seaplanes and had made “hundreds” of round trips from Sydney to the Cottage Point Inn, where Mr Cousins and his party had enjoyed lunch.
Mr Shaw said the engine in the plane that crashed – a 1964 model – had only logged 200 hours’ flying time. He said: “These aircraft are some of the most
‘Every 100 hours [planes] are taken out of the water for maintenance’
widely used seaplanes in the world to this day.
“They are checked over at the end of each day. Every 100 hours of flying time they’re taken out of the water into a hangar or an area for regular maintenance.
“The engines are required to be replaced every 1,200
hours – we replace ours at 1,100 hours and the engine on this aircraft was 200 hours old.”
Kevin Bowe, vice-president of the Seaplane Pilots Association Australia, told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph that the plane may have banked too steeply or too slowly. But he also suggested it may have hit an unexpected pocket of air produced by the nearby hill.
“It is quite hilly in that area and a downdraft may have caught the pilot out,” he said.
Mr Bowe insisted the DHC-2 was typically safer than other small planes because the pilot can generally land it on water in an emergency.
But Mr Bowe added: “If you get a situation like this and it nosedives, it goes straight to the bottom.”