Mum haunted by pilot’s failings in horror plane crash that killed kids
She was wrapping Christmas gifts for her two young children when told they had died in a horror plane crash. Three years on Catherine Di Blasio is still living a nightmare. WATCH HER VIDEO
QLD News
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It was just six days before Christmas.
Catherine Di Blasio was wrapping last minute presents for her two young children when the doorbell rang.
She had expected her children - Lucas, 9, and Lavinia, 10 - home hours earlier.
Relieved, she flung open the door only to be confronted by three detectives and told the devastating news the siblings had been killed in a horror plane crash.
Lucas Mocanu, his sister Lavinia, their father Cris Mocanu, 41, and pilot Robert “Roy” Watterson, 67, were killed when the plane they were in crashed shortly after taking off at Redcliffe on December 19, 2021.
Speaking nearly three years after the fatal joy flight, Catherine Di Blasio said the crash still felt like a “nightmare”.
“I will never get over not seeing my children again,” she said.
“You blink your eyes and that’s it, you’ll never see your children … it’s very surreal, too hard for your brain to comprehend.
“It’s such a big tragedy that it’s like your brain doesn’t want to accept it or realise that it’s the reality … I’m still struggling with that … it’s like a nightmare.”
At the time of the crash, Ms Di Blasio told The Courier-Mail the trip was a surprise for her son’s birthday and she wasn’t aware they would be going on a flight.
“It makes Christmas very challenging, the first year I struggled to see any Christmas decorations, I tried to not go out in shopping malls as much … my brain goes between the happy and the sad,” she said.
Ms Di Blasio said the ATSB report released earlier this year – which revealed the pilot had not completed all pre-take-off checks including fuel tank selection due to distraction – was “extremely upsetting”.
She revealed it was her daughter Lavi who filmed the fatal flight – videos which ultimately helped investigators piece together what happened in the moments before the crash.
“I haven’t seen (the footage), it’s in the hands of (investigators) ... I don’t think I’d be able to see it anyway.”
Speaking about the report Ms Di Blasio said: “I didn’t know that my son was at the front of the plane … I thought (Lucas) was at the back with his sister, he was next to the emergency exit”.
“It says in the report, whoever is sitting next to the emergency exit is meant to be an adult or a person strong enough to open the doors … that was upsetting,” she said.
Asked whether she thought her son would have been strong enough to help in an emergency, Ms Di Blasio said: “not to open the door, I don’t think so”.
“And obviously the security checks…all those things not done properly...it was hard to accept.”
Ms Di Blasio said she took her children down to meet their father on that fateful Sunday morning – her last words ‘have fun guys, I love you’.
“My son turned around and said ‘love you too mum’ and they left,” she said.
Ms Di Blasio decided to do some last minute Christmas shopping with her children expected home by lunchtime.
Several “out of service” calls later she started to panic.
“I thought (the detectives) had the wrong door, I nearly closed the door and they said ‘no ma’am, we’ve got the right place’ … and when they said that, that’s when my heart sank.’
“They asked me if I had two young children, offered for me to come and sit down and told me what had happened.”
Two days after the crash, Ms Di Blasio said she mustered up the courage to open her children’s Christmas presents including two gold chains she had purchased months earlier.
“My friend put the chains on me and I cried … I’ve never taken them off,” she said.
“When I miss them I put my hand over the chains, they are with me every day, every moment of the day.”
Ms Di Blasio recently moved back to Canada and said she planned to spend December 19 with loved ones.
She said the crash was a reminder of how short life can be.
“Don’t get upset about little things … Don’t forget to hug your loved ones because you never know when they might be taken away or a moment cut short,” Ms Di Blasio said.
“Please enjoy all the precious small moments as best as you can with your children, create lots of memories, photos, and videos of them laughing.”
Ms Di Blasio said St Elizabeth’s Catholic Primary School in Tarragindi had created a memorial garden for Lucas and Lavi with a music award at the school also dedicated to the “talented” siblings.
“No one at the school will ever forget (Lucas and Lavi), they were both incredibly loved … they had beautiful souls,” she said.
Ms Di Blasio said Lucas dreamt of becoming a professional soccer player while Lavi wanted to be a “nurse like her mum” or designer.
She said shortly after the crash she was allocated a bereavement counsellor at Red Nose.
“We still do sessions together … you need a village – friends, family, a psychologist, a (bereavement) counsellor,” Ms Di Blasio said.
The ATSB report found the single-engine Rockwell Commander 114 aircraft had only just taken off when it experienced engine failure.
Ninety-one seconds after takeoff the engine stopped, the plane lost altitude and crashed into the ocean 53 seconds later.
The plane was inverted 170m from shore in about 2m of water and the group was unable to escape and died.
“The ATSB found that during preparation for the flight, a perceived engine problem distracted the pilot during the conduct of pre-take-off checks,” the ATSB report said.
“After rectifying the issue, the pilot did not complete the remaining pre-take-off checks (including fuel tank selection) before departure.”
The report also found that Mr Watterson – who was likely experiencing stress and time pressure following the engine power reduction and then stoppage – did not conduct initial emergency actions when the plane was experiencing engine issues and attempted to return to the runway for landing.
“During the return to the airfield, the pilot had extended the undercarriage for the intended landing,” the report said.
“This contributed to the aircraft inverting when it collided with water. This likely resulted in occupant disorientation and added difficulty in operating the exits, reducing their ability to escape.”
The video recorded also showed the pilot did not provide his passengers with an in-flight emergency brief or instruct them on any actions they should take in an emergency.
The ATSB report found there were no pre-existing defects of the airframe or engine.
Originally published as Mum haunted by pilot’s failings in horror plane crash that killed kids
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