[Peetwo]

Oh; for pities sake- STDU.

P2 – “Still beggars belief that CASA is trying to second guess the ATSB investigation before they've even recovered the aircraft...”

That CASA are ‘Second guessing’ is, IMO an understatement. In the real world, the investigators do ‘their thing’ and come up with a report. As the ATSB chap on the TV interview said, ‘if they discover any safety issues they will report them to CASA’ (paraphrased) this is the normal, routine way things are done.  CASA must wait.

Gibson, with his ‘stall warning’ pony-pooh is flagging CASA’s predetermined outcome and intention to ‘influence’ the investigation – yet again.

Short and sweet – “Yes minister; the aircraft should have had a stall warning system; we have sanctioned the operator and made it mandatory for these devices to be fitted”. “Yes, yes, we’ve made it into operator supported pilot error; so just relax, have some more Kool Aid, put your feet up and relax”…

No one knows, not for certain sure, not yet, what killed these folks. But there are questions which Gibson may be able to answer; for example:-

What benefit would a stall warning alert have been to this pilot? At any height below about 100’ there simply is not enough time to recover, the aerodynamics of the float, flap and wing design prevent this.  Perhaps the flap was inadvertently raised too early; or, by accident and the pilot was unaware of it, do we now need a flap position warning; maybe the Wasp engine just quit, do we now need an engine failure warning system? Did a Seagull go through the windscreen, did an oil line let go and douse the windscreen, did the pilot have a heart attack?

In short; until the proper authority, the ATSB, has done it’s work there is no telling why the accident occurred. This obscene posturing and attention seeking by CASA, attempting to influence thinking and presenting ‘solution’ before the cause becomes identified is offensive.

Toot - half steam - toot

Update 05 Jan '18: Via the Oz

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Seaplane salvage shows ‘quite an impact’ on fuselage



The wreckage of the Sydney Seaplanes aircraft is lifted from the Hawkesbury River yesterday. Police divers worked in limited visibility to recover three major parts of the plane. Picture: Richard Dobson

The Australian 12:00AM January 5, 2018



EMILY RITCHIE

Three empty seats at the Sydney Cricket Ground served as a chilling reminder of the seaplane crash that killed six people on New Year’s Eve, as the twisted and crumpled wreckage was raised from the depths of the Hawkesbury River yesterday.

Members of the Cousins family from Britain, who died in the shocking crash, had tickets to ­attend the fifth Ashes Test but their seats went unoccupied as police divers recovered the aircraft from the site in Jerusalem Bay in Sydney’s north.

NSW police divers worked from 6am in conditions with limited to no visibility on the river bed and within hours recovered three major elements of the plane from its resting place 13 metres under water.

Detective Superintendent Mark Hutchings from the Marine Area Command said the fuselage looked to have suffered extensive damage on impact.

“From the time the wreckage was brought on the barge we saw there was severe damage to the plane and it appeared there had been quite an impact on hitting the water,” Detective Hutchings said.



The empty seats at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Complicated and delicate, the recovery mission required the assistance of numerous barge operators and police investigators, and was observed by Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s executive director of transport safety Nat Nagy said parts of the aircraft had become detached either on impact or while underwater and that, to ease the recovery mission and ensure everything fitted on the barge, the floats had been removed by police before retrieval.

Part of a wing, the floats and fuselage were then raised to the surface and lifted on to the barge, with police divers searching for more wreckage through the afternoon.

Mr Nagy said no personal items or phones had been recovered, and his team would conclude the on-site investigation in coming days before returning to Canberra to analyse the collected evidence.

The ATSB is expecting to publish a preliminary report within 30 days, with a more extensive record of findings to be handed down in 12 months.

“Over the course of the next 12 months we will complete a report that will aim to find out exactly what went wrong, with the goal of improving safety and preventing an accident like this happening again in future,” Mr Nagy said.



The plane was modified from a cropduster.

It emerged yesterday the plane had a long history in general aviation and had previously crashed in 1996, when it was in use as a cropduster in Armidale, NSW. The pilot died and the aircraft was damaged, but it was later rebuilt and recertified. The six bodies from the latest crash were recovered from the wreckage within hours of the crash and the coroner will determine the exact cause of death. NSW Police confirmed they had been in contact with relatives of the victims — cricket fanatic Richard Cousins, 58, his two sons William, 25, and Edward Cousins, 23, his fiancee Emma Bowden, 48, who worked as art director of OK Magazine, her daughter Heather, 11, and pilot Gareth Morgan, 44 — and said some were headed to Australia to assist with the investigation.

Richard’s brothers Simon and Andrew Cousins arrived yesterday and issued a statement expressing thanks for the support they’ve received. “We are fortunate and thankful for the outpouring of love and support we’ve received from across the world,” they said. “We are deeply touched by the tributes to Richard, William, Edward, Emma and Heather in the media and throughout the community.”


The Sydney Seaplane circa 1990.

The plane, a 1964 de Havilland Beaver owned by Sydney Seaplanes, took off from the Cottage Point Inn just after 3pm on Sunday and nosedived into the water shortly after making a sharp turn to the right.

Witnesses, including 32-year-old Todd Stellars, saw the plane flip on impact and rushed to help but could not rescue anyone from the quickly sinking aircraft.

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MTF...P2