WARNING......WARNING......This is purely speculation on my part. It might well be some time till we hear the facts of the case.
Wonder if it might have been an inboard / outboard fuel starvation problem. The only knowledge I have about the accident is the picture I saw on the midday news also.
If I am correct, any new PA-31 drivers beware; most operators expect you to leave approximately 10-20 L per side in the outboard fuel tanks to keep the rubber cells intact. If for some reason the outboards should be selected and the pilot fail to return to inboards before take off, double engine failure will be nicely timed to coincide with a taxi from somewhere like the Darwin Northern GA to approximately 300' (perhaps a little too high if you were
smart enough to do an intersection departure.........again I do not claim to know if this is what happened in this case........ At that point, the apparently simple solution of selecting the opposite tanks (should be inboard) can be wrought with peril as the tank selectors are down on the floor.
I hope everyone is OK, in fact I also hope my speculation is off the mark.........
