Chinese widow filed $4.5m lawsuit over Airlie Beach lagoon father and son drowning

The Chinese widow of an airline pilot who drowned with their five-year-old son at a Queensland lagoon has filed a $4.5m lawsuit over the double tragedy. Read what she alleges.

A Chinese widow has filed a $4.5m loss of dependency lawsuit over a double drowning at Airlie Beach lagoon that claimed the lives of her husband and their five-year-old son in a tragedy that shocked the community.

Jie Tan, her husband Yuanwei Zhang and their son Chenxi had been holidaying in the Whitsundays from China when that fateful day in 2018 unfolded as two lifeguards chatted nearby at the popular swimming hole that was packed with people.

Yuanwei had been swimming in the lagoon when, about 3.39pm on October 28, 2018, he helped Chenxi from the edge into the water.

Airlie Beach Lagoon was closed after a father and son drowned on October 28, 2018.

“(Yuanwei) then began to swim out from the shallow water to the deeper water with Chenxi on his back clinging around his neck,” documents filed in Mackay Supreme Court and sighted by this publication state.

But barely a minute later, about 3.40pm, 30-year-old Yuanwei “began to experience difficulties and to observably flounder in the water before disappearing below the surface”.

Chenxi also slipped beneath lagoon waters, the documents state.

From 2.20pm that day there had been just two lifeguards on duty – Jacinta Pennisi and Patrick Lawlor – who allegedly had been “standing together on a bridge overlooking the lagoon a distance less than five metres from where Chenxi entered the lagoon”.

It is alleged Ms Pennisi and Mr Lawlor were still together on the bridge when the father and son went underwater about 20 metres away.

It took six minutes for Yuanwei to be retrieved from the water at 3.46pm, and another seven minutes for Chenxi to be pulled from the bottom of the lagoon at 3.53pm.

Neither could be revived.

Tributes were left at Airlie Beach Lagoon after 30-year-old Yuanwei Zhang and his five-year-old son Chenxi drowned on Sunday, October 28, 2018.

Jie Tan, who resided in the Jiangsu Province, is suing Whitsunday Regional Council and Ellmill Enterprises Pty Ltd – the lifeguard service contractor – for damages totalling about 20m yuan or about $AU4.5m, alleging each breaches that exposed Yuanwei and Chenxi “to a risk of death which could have been avoided by the exercise of reasonable care”.

Lawyers for Jie Tan allege Ms Pennisi and Mr Lawlor “failed to keep any or any proper lookout” and that they chatted with each other “and thereby distracted each other from paying attention to activity in the lagoon.

Court documents state it was also alleged they “failed to retrieve (Yuanwei) from the lagoon immediately after he encountered difficulty”.

Lawyers have further alleged the council’s breaches included failing to: “implement recommendations (by) an earlier safety audit report”, install lifeguard towers of a height and position enabling lifeguards to observe activity in the lagoon and put in place a floating barrier separating the deeper and shallower sections of the lagoon.

The Airlie Beach Lagoon is packed with families on New Year's Eve 2021. Picture: Rae Wilson

At the time of his death Yuanwei was a senior pilot with Chongqing Airline and the main provider for his family and his parents.

The $4.5m damages claim includes past and future earning loss, money he provided his parents each week, past and future pension and services loss and special damages.

Whitsunday Regional Council declined to comment on any legal matter before the courts.

Originally published as Chinese widow filed $4.5m lawsuit over Airlie Beach lagoon father and son drowning