01-16-2018, 09:37 AM
From the Oz today...
Quote:Seaplane firm back flying after six killed
Sydney Seaplanes has resumed operations, 16 days after one of its aircraft crashed in the Hawkesbury River, killing six people.
“There is never a perfect time to recommence flying after an incident of this nature,” the company’s managing director, Aaron Shaw, said yesterday.
“However, getting back in the air is a necessary step given the range of people, tourism and hospitality businesses in Sydney that rely on Sydney Seaplanes.
“It’s also what our late colleague Gareth Morgan, a passionate seaplane pilot for all of his adult life, would have wanted.”
Mr Morgan, 44, was killed in the crash with multi-millionaire British company boss Richard Cousins, 58, his two sons William, 25, and Edward, 23, and Mr Cousins’s fiancee, Emma Bowden, 48, and herdaughter Heather, 11.
The 1964 model de Havilland Beaver took off from the Cottage Point Inn just after 3pm on New Year’s Eve and turned to the northwest before making a sharp turn to the right and nosediving into Jerusalem Bay, killing all on board.
Mr Shaw said unfavourable flying conditions yesterday, including predicted strong southerly winds, forced the company to cancel planned flights but it would be back in the air once weather improved this week.
Sydney Seaplanes was “confident” there were no systemic failings in the de Havilland Beaver DHC-2 aircraft, but it would keep its remaining aircraft of that model grounded until the Australian Transport Safety Bureau released its preliminary report, expected within a month of the accident.
Mr Shaw said services would commence with its Cessna C-208 Caravan aircraft. All flights would be manned by two pilots for an interim period.