Police probe seaplane pilot as parents speak of heartbreak
DETECTIVES are investigating the state of mind of the pilot at the helm of the doomed seaplane which crashed into the Hawkesbury River killing all on board.
NSW
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DETECTIVES are investigating the state of mind of the pilot at the helm of the doomed seaplane which crashed into the Hawkesbury River killing all on board.
Officers are poised to search the Enfield house Gareth Morgan rented with three flatmates and will probe his political and religious leanings and hobbies and behaviour with friends.
The search conducted as part of routine crash investigations comes as his devout Christian parents Dudley and Orlis Morgan’s prepare today to land in Sydney to officially identify their son’s body.
His father, from Victoria, British Columbia, has been left crushed telling friends: “I never envisaged burying our son, the whole process is incomprehensible. My wife and I just can’t believe what’s happened.”
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An autopsy was yesterday performed looking for a cause of death and whether medical reasons, or drugs or alcohol, caused Mr Morgan to lose control of the DHC-2 Beaver craft.
Detectives yesterday visited the house Mr Morgan, a pilot with more than 20 years’ experience, shared with flatmates in Sydney’s inner west informing them a team would return to search the property today or tomorrow.
“Detectives called by yesterday and asked if they could inspect the house and Gareth’s room,” his flatmate Luke Thornley told the Daily Telegraph.
“As far as we are aware, Gareth was fine and happy and didn’t give the impression anything was wrong.
“He went for runs every morning, even on New Year’s Day and was excited at the prospect of becoming a commercial pilot for Qantas and was studying for exams.
“He has 20 years of experience and was taking the exams in his stride.”
His best friend Gary Homanick said: “He was quiet and calm and wouldn’t say much but would light up people’s lives.
“He would have loved to have a girlfriend and online dated from time to time but spent more time in the sky than on the ground.
“He was a real gentleman that should have been born in another era, he never had a bad word for anyone or said a crude joke.”
Mr Morgan, 44, 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
Crash investigators have been working round the clock in Jerusalem Bay and are expected to hoist the plane out of the water by the end of the week.
The Sydney Seaplane took off from Cottage Point Inn at 3.15pm and crashed on its way to Rose Bay leaving Mr Morgan no time to make a mayday call.
It’s possible the fatal dive was caused by banking either too deeply or too slowly.
Another theory is that it was hit by a pocket of air coming over the hill forcing it to career downwards into the water.
The Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter found an oil slick and several items of debris on the surface of Cowan Creek.
Today officers from Marine Area Command, including specialist police divers, will launch an operation to recover the wreckage at 6am.
ATSB officers have been deciphering how to lift it up using airbags that will inflate and raise the aircraft above the sea, or a crane.
A spokeswoman said: “The key goal for us is to try and keep the plane as intact as possible so then we are able to thoroughly examine the various components of the aircraft.”