Family of photographer Tim Jones sues Airlines of Tasmania over fatal crash during Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race

THE family of a photographer killed when a plane crashed during the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race is suing the airline.

The plane is removed from water in January 2015 as members of Tasmania Police photograph it. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

THE family of a photographer killed when a plane crashed during the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race is suing the airline.

Pilot Sam Langford, 29, and respected Hobart photographer Tim Jones, 61, perished when their Cessna 172 crashed into Storm Bay, south of Hobart, as they captured the iconic race in December 2014.

Mr Jones’s family has launched court action against the plane’s operator, Airlines of Tasmania, under the Fatal Accidents Act.

The Act allows family members to recover damages relating to a death caused by a “wrongful act, neglect or default”.

A directions hearing, closed to the public, was held in the Supreme Court yesterday.

A report by the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau was released last year.

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It found the plane entered a spin after a steep climbing turn, for which the pilot had not been trained, stalling the aircraft.

Hobart-based photographer Tim Jones, 61, ran a camera shop in the CBD and was a Sydney to Hobart regular.

It then nosedived into the sea east of Cape Raoul on the Tasman Peninsula and sank 90m to the ocean floor.

Before the crash, it had just finished a photo run of yacht Mistraal at a height of about 15m.

This was about 45m lower than the airline was allowed to fly.

The report stated a Cessna 172 would need to be flying at a height of least 120m to recover from a spin.

However, the report said the aircraft flying at a height lower than permitted “was not likely to have contributed to the accident” in itself.

While Airlines of Tasmania had been given a dispensation to fly to 45m above obstacles, the safety board found the operator had consistently flown down to 15m for aerial photographs.

The board considered this a risk factor along with the airline’s safety management processes which were insufficient to identify the risks of low-level flying during the Sydney-Hobart race.

At the time, the airline said the report had found that the crash “was not caused by any fault with the aircraft or our operational procedures”.

However, it had stopped low-level photography flights and “extensively changed” its safety management system following the crash.