Lincom Group founder Robert Watterson remembered as ‘widely respected and admired’ businessman
The pilot killed in a plane crash north of Brisbane has been remembered as a “widely respected and admired” businessman who was “all about family”. It comes as the passengers who perished in the crash are identified.
The pilot who died in Sunday’s tragic plane crash has been remembered as a widely admired and respected family man.
Robert Watterson, who is known by most as Roy, was piloting the four-seater light plane when it crashed into waters off Brisbane, killing all four on board.
This afternoon the Lincom Group, the business Mr Watterson founded in the 1990s, posted about the tragedy, saying they were deeply saddened by the loss of Mr Watterson, 67, and national hire fleet co-ordinator Chris Mocanu and his two children.
The passengers were a 41-year-old man and his daughter, 10, and son, 9.
The four-seater light plane disappeared behind mangroves and crashed into the sea after it took off from Redcliffe Aerodrome, about 9am on Sunday.
On Monday morning, the plane’s wreckage was retrieved with members of the Australian Safety Bureau on scene to assist.
The multimillion-dollar company has operations across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific, and remains family-owned and operated.
On Monday morning, Lincom Group’s close business associates at demolition and excavation company Powerscreen remembered Mr Watterson for his kindness and generosity.
“Today we are deeply saddened to hear that Roy Watterson, a great friend of Powerscreen and founder of our Australian and New Zealand dealer Lincom Group passed away in a tragic accident,” a statement posted to Facebook by Powerscreen said.
“Roy was a great character who was widely admired and respected among the Powerscreen family worldwide.
“He was a very proud man … He was proud of his business, still family-owned and going strong under the watchful eye of sons Stephen and Mark, daughter Lindsey and his loving partner Jan.
“More than anything Roy was all about family. The start of any call was trading stories about family and what all the kids were up to.
“With the arrival of any new Powerscreen baby, the Roy Watterson trademark Koala bear teddy was not far behind, a very thoughtful gift from the other side of the world.
“He was so proud of all his children; Stephen, Lindsey and Mark who we know well from our dealings with Lincom, and we’ve closely followed Emi and Andy in their sports and studies achievements as they’ve grown up.”
Lincom Group posted about the tragedy this afternoon, saying that the plane’s passengers were the company’s National Hire Fleet co-ordinator and his two children.
“The loss has been deeply felt across the entire Lincom team.
“Roy established Lincom over 25 years ago and saw it grow and develop over the years. Roy passed on the CEO reigns to Stephen several years ago but was always around to offer advice and viewpoints.
“Chris had been with Lincom for a relatively short period but quickly settled in, developed several strong business relationships and made the position his own.
“We were very privileged to work with both Roy and Chris, and we will miss them dearly.
“We will continue to post updates about funeral services on our social media pages in the coming weeks.”
A relative of Mr Watterson said that he was an avid flyer who kept models of every aircraft he had flown.
“His passion in life was flying and would spend hours on flights to somewhere in the world or he would just be out flying his own plane,” the man wrote on social media.
“He even has models of every single plane that he has ever been on but sadly that all came to an end yesterday with a tragic accident.”
Scarborough local, Kim, lived just down the road from the marina and said when she heard the ambulance she just assumed it was a bad car crash.
“It’s very shocking and sad,” she said.
“We live just around the corner, so I heard all the ambulances coming past.”
A marine specialist rescue crew and a tow truck worked to pull the plane out of the water this morning.
Crews cut the tail off the plane to make it easier to remove from the water.
It was transported onto a tow truck to be inspected by ATSB.
The nose of the plane appeared to be crushed by the impact and the plane’s retractable wheels were also down.
The plane parts were moved to the Redcliffe Aero Club hangers on Monday afternoon.
A bouquet of flowers was placed by the entrance of the club as a tribute.
ATSB will work over the next six to eight weeks to determine what happened to the plane by gathering information about the engine and the communication between the aircraft and the tower.
It’s understood the owner of the plane had a hanger at the Redcliffe Aero Club.
