Originally Posted by
flywatcher
I can't remember the specifics but I recall at least three ditchings where all survived. There was a Partenavia I believe that ditched near Wilsons Promontory and a father and his young son survived OK, I remember a Cherokee doing the same trick, and I know that an ultra light ditched near Clark Island. Off those that did not survive, all the ones I know were multi engined, going right back to the early De Havilland airliners, a twin engined freighter, (Argosy) and also on 17th July 1983 an Aero Commander 685 Whisky Juliet Charlie. I would hazard a guess that the death toll in multi engined aircraft is probably much higher than in singles. Please note, I haven't mentioned Frederick Valentich on 21st October 1978 because 1. It is not known if it was a ditching and 2. it was never proved that he ended up in Bass Strait.
Some of old mate UFO Fred’s wreckage washed up a few years later on the coast and it was linked to the same aircraft type and was within the serial number range of his aircraft.
There will be a technicality there that if it was adjacent to Wilson’s Prom it’s possibly not Bass Strait and the Thruster ultralight a few years back was in Banks Strait unless I’m horribly mistaken.
There was a guy many years ago in a very lightweight ultralight took off from Latrobe Valley headed for Yarram. He went on top of cloud and picked up a screaming northerly and when he came down he was over one of the islands off Wilson’s Prom, such as Rabbit or Cliffy. He was able to land safely due to the strong winds and through some amazing luck he was rescued by boat from the island. They would probably have never found him otherwise.