Seaplane wreckage pulled from river after crash
THE full shocking impact of the seaplane that crashed into the Hawkesbury River has been revealed as the mangled wreck was lifted from the water.
NSW
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THE full shocking impact of the seaplane that crashed into the Hawkesbury River has been revealed as the mangled wreck was lifted from the water on Thursday.
The body of the plane, where six people died, is totally destroyed, showing those on board stood no chance when it hit the water nose first.
The plane was lifted carefully from Jerusalem Creek north of Sydney.
The recovery started at 6am on Thursday.
The seaplane’s pontoon’s or “floats” which allow the plane to land on water were the first pieces to be salvaged. Those parts of the seaplane have been loaded on to a barge which will be taken to Bayview Boat ramp.
One of the plane’s wings has also been pulled from the water.
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Marine Area Command Superintendent Mark Hutchings said the plane was significantly damaged.
“This was a very complex operation which was done very professionally by the divers, in co-operation with the barge operators,” Supt Hutchings said.
“During the course of a number of hours, we were able to raise the wreckage and it has been placed on a barge and at the moment we are still looking for some other items and once that happens, the wreckage will be brought back here and transported.
“We would just like to say that from the time the wreckage was boarded on the barge, we saw there was severe damage to the plane, and it appears it had been quite an impact on hitting the water.
“We have relatives coming over, obviously after a tragic accident you can only imagine how much they’d be hurting. We would like to be able to talk to them about details in respect to the actual investigation without going into details here today.
“We do not cast dispersions or speculate. The coroner will ultimately make a decision about how the accident occurred and the cause of death.”
Supt Hutchings added: “I’m sure the family is devastated and will take a long time to come to terms with this. We will do all we can to lessen this burden when they visit Australia.”
ATSB Executive Director Nat Nagy said they are still looking for cameras and personal belongings that went down in the crash.
“For us, its extremely important that we were able to retrieve the aircraft so that we can complete the onsite phase of our investigation,” Mr Nagy said.
“What we will now be doing is transporting that aircraft to a secure facility so that our specialists, with backgrounds in engineering and maintenance, are able to examine the aircraft and piece together exactly what happened and the sequence of events.
“What we will do now is return to Canberra where we will begin analysing the collected evidence before producing a preliminary report into the factual circumstances around the accident, in and around 30 days.
“Then over the course of the next 12 months, we will complete a report that will aim to find out exactly what went wrong, with the goal of improving safety and prevent an accident like this happening again in the future.”
Mr Nagy said one of the wings and both pontoons or “floats” had come off on impact with the water or shortly after.
“As part of the planning for the retrieval, we were able to have quite a good idea of where the parts were, there were a number of elements that were semi removed from the fuselage, we didn’t have to do a lot to separate and raise them up. We looked at how we could raise it up as a single piece but because of the dynamics of the aircraft, it was in a number of pieces,” Mr Nagy said.
Pilot Gareth Morgan died when the aircraft nosedived and smashed into the Hawkesbury River before flipping over on to its roof killing passengers 58-year-old British millionaire Richard Cousins, his two sons, fiancee Emma Bowden, 48, and her daughter Heather, 11.
The brothers of Mr Cousins have arrived in Sydney as the wreckage of the plane is lifted from the Hawkesbury River.
Breaking their silence, Simon and Andrew Cousins, thanked the fishing mates who risked their lives in the moments after the crash to try and rescue all those on board.
“We have now arrived in Australia and as the investigation continues, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved for their dedication and commitment, in particular the Sydney Water Police and those members of the public who helped on the day of the accident,” the brothers said in a statement released through the Britiish Consulate General in Sydney.
“We are fortunate and thankful for the outpouring of love and support we’ve received from across the world,” the brothers said.
“We are deeply touched by the tributes to Richard, William, Edward, Emma and Heather in the media and throughout the community.”
They have asked for privacy and said they would not be doing any media interviews.
Amazing photographs have emerged of the same plane as it morphed from a 1964 crop duster into a seaplane.
The plane was totally rebuilt after it was involved in a fatal 1996 crash which killed the pilot as he was preparing to spray crops in Armidale in gusty winds.
It was being used as a crop duster when it cartwheeled and crashed at Armidale, with the pilot killed and the plane destroyed, according to an Australian Transport Safety Bureau report.
The DHC-2 Beaver was rebuilt and has since been owned by several businesses including, most recently, Sydney Seaplanes.
Aviation expert Neil Hansford says the fuselage was probably the only original part left on the aircraft.
“The engine on this particular aircraft has to come off every 1200 hours and this operator was pulling it off at 1100 and it’s basically returned to new,” he told ABC radio today.