Shattered families reveal pain as seaplane salvage mission begins
A BARGE is the first at the scene this morning in a six-hour operation to retrieve the seaplane that crashed in the Hawkesbury River on New Year’s Eve, killing five UK tourists and a Canadian pilot.
NSW
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A BARGE is the first at the scene this morning in a six-hour operation to retrieve the seaplane that crashed in the Hawkesbury River on New Year’s Eve, killing five UK tourists and a Canadian pilot.
Today, air crash investigators will get their first look at the wreckage.
In what’s expected to be a long recovery operation, which started at 6am today, police attached to Marine Area Command including specialist police divers, hope to lift the aircraft out of the river in one piece.
The mission, involving either crane or airbags, comes as the former British MP and father of crash victim Emma Bowden and grandfather to her 11-year-old daughter Heather, revealed the sheer devastation of their loss on his family.
Instead of looking forward to 48-year-old Emma’s wedding to millionaire Richard Cousins, former Conservative party veteran Gerry Bowden is planning to take home their bodies for their funerals.
In a written statement, Mr Bowden said he his family are devastated by the loss Emma and Heather who had spread “happiness and joy among all they met throughout their lives.”
“We were all utterly delighted Emma and Richard were so obviously in love and looking forward to a life together. We were looking forward to the wedding in the summer. We deeply feel their loss but their memory will shine brightly forever.
“We were all utterly delighted Emma and Richard were so obviously in love and looking forward to a life together. As a family we would appreciate peace and privacy at this sad time.’’
Mr Bowden, 82, who served for nine years in Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government, released a statement on behalf of himself and his other children Kate, Rebecca and Oliver.
The mother and daughter died in the crash in the Hawkesbury River alongside Emma’s fiancee, Mr Cousins and his two sons, William, 23, and Edward, 25, as they left Cottage Point Inn on Sunday to return to Sydney Harbour.
Canadian pilot Gareth Morgan, 44, also perished.
Emma, art editor at OK! Magazine, met Mr Cousins in a London pub about a year after his wife died of cancer in 2015. He was set to retire from his $10 million a year job as boss of Compass, the world’s biggest catering firm, at Easter and marry Ms Bowden in June.
Heather’s father Alex Page, who lives in Prague and had separated from Ms Bowden several years ago, was said to be in a state of profound shock.
Mr Cousins’s older brothers Simon and Andrew are believed to have flown to Australia to take the bodies home.
OK! co-worker Natalie Posner was among those paying tribute to Ms Bowden yesterday. “Her smile lit up the room ... she was one of the kindest, warmest people I’ve ever met,” she wrote.