Skip to main content

Australian seaplane wreck to be raised from river this week

Police and Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigators board a police boat to go the scene of a seaplane crash in the Hawkesbury River near Sydney, Monday, Jan. 1, 2018.. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
An accident investigator said on Tuesday the wreckage of a seaplane that crashed north of Sydney would be raised from the river this week. But investigators have offered no clues to the cause of the crash that killed the Canadian pilot and his five British passengers.
Compass Group chief executive Richard Cousins, 58, his fiancee Emma Bowden, 48, her 11-year-old daughter Heather Bowden-Page and his two sons William, 25, and Edward, 23, were killed in the crash Sunday, along with experienced pilot Gareth Morgan, 44.
The de Havilland Beaver, manufactured in 1963, crashed into the Hawkesbury River on a return flight to Sydney after a New Year’s Eve lunch.
The plane was turning right shortly after takeoff when it crashed, Australian Transport Safety Bureau executive director Nat Nagy told reporters. Nagy declined to comment on the potential causes.
The plane remained largely intact and was lying upside down and nose-first on the river bed under 13 meters (43 feet) of water, Nagy said. Police divers retrieved the bodies within hours of the crash.
“It’s our hope that we will be able to raise the aircraft to the surface by the end of this week,” Nagy said. ‘The key goal for us is to try and keep the aircraft as intact as possible so that then we’re able to thoroughly examine the various components on board the aircraft.”
An investigation team is questioning witnesses about the events leading to the crash and hope to retrieve images from phones or cameras that might be in the wreckage, Nagy said.
Witness Will McGovern told Australian Broadcasting Corp. that only the plane’s tail was protruding from the water when he reached the scene by boat. Several men dived into a fuel slick in attempts to free the victims, McGovern said.
Kurt Bratby, another witness on the river, estimated the plane sank in five minutes and would-be rescuers repeatedly dived under the water in vain.

 





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Over 1 lakh illegal immigrants arrested in US in 2017

On January 25, Trump issued an executive order to set forth the Administration’s immigration enforcement and removal priorities. (Representational Image) The US authorities have arrested 143,470 illegal immigrants this year, according to a latest report. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in its annual report that it has made 143,470 administrative arrests in fiscal year 2017, increasing 30 per cent Year-on-Year, Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday. An administrative arrest is the arrest of an alien for a civil violation of the immigration laws, which is subsequently adjudicated by an immigration judge or through other administrative processes. Of the total arrests, 110,568 occurred after January 20, which is a 42 per cent increase over the same time period last year, according to the report. US President Donald Trump took the oath of office on January 20 this year. On January 25, Trump issued an executive order to set forth the Administration’s immigrat...
Post a Comment
Read more

Canada debates new harassment legislation amid #MeToo storm

We can afford to do more for people who need it by doing less for people who don’t: Trudeau’s message (Photo Source: Reuters) Canada’s parliament began debate on Monday on new legislation to tighten workplace harassment rules, including those governing politicians, as allegations of sexual misconduct mounted against lawmakers on both sides of the political spectrum. The bill, introduced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government in November, gained a new prominence after a federal cabinet minister and two provincial party leaders stepped down last week after being accused of inappropriate behavior. While the proposed law will govern all federal workplaces, including private businesses, the environment among political staffers in Ottawa was in focus as the #MeToo social media movement gained momentum in Canada. “It clearly is a crisis in this workplace,” Employment Minister Patty Hajdu told reporters outside the House of Commons. “We talk a lot about getting wom...
Post a Comment
Read more

Trump administration drops Obama-era easing of marijuana prosecutions

The US Justice Department on Thursday rescinded an Obama administration policy that had eased enforcement of federal marijuana laws in states that legalized the drug, instead giving federal prosecutors wide latitude to pursue criminal charges. The action by Attorney General Jeff Sessions could have damaging consequences for the burgeoning marijuana industry in the six states including California and Colorado that have legalized the drug for recreational use, plus dozens of others that permit medicinal use. Justice Department officials declined to say whether they might take legal action against those states, saying further steps were “still under consideration.” Federal law still prohibits marijuana even as some states move to legalize it. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said President Donald Trump’s top priority was enforcing federal law “whether it’s marijuana or immigration.” The policy change, detailed by Sessions in a one-page memo to federal prosecutors nationwid...
Post a Comment
Read more