Tin Kicker,
you are absolutely correct. Turbo Otter, you are incorrect, read the report again. If you take off on a heading of 350 and the wind is from the north east gusting to 37 kts, what do you think is going to happen.
The report also clearly states it was a combination of mechanical turbulence or windshear or a combination of both.
It also quite clearly states that is will be a CASA requirement to wear life jackets under the proposed regs. Go to the Canadian accident website and look up their study on floatplane accidents. You will see that survivors who dont have a life jacket on have a increase probability of drowning once they have escaped the aircraft.
Read the report before you slag off the ATSB