Another Caravan almost bites the dust or mud!
Seaplane ditches in lake
Holly Lloyd-McDonald
06feb06
A SEAPLANE taking tourists on a joy flight over Tasmania's wilderness ditched in a remote lake after it lost power last night.
Passengers praised the pilot who landed the plane safely after a warning light had been activated in the cockpit, police said.
Eight of the 10 passengers were Victorians and two were French tourists, police said.
All passengers and the pilot were uninjured, police said.
Power to the single-engine Cessna Caravan was lost at 5.52pm and the plane took 26 minutes to descend and land safely on Lake Burbury.
Police said the pilot, Kevin Pearce, 49, brought the plane down on the hydro-electric lake near Tasmania's west coast after alerting authorities.
"Police were at the scene . . . and report that the pilot and passengers are not injured and there is no damage to property," a Tasmanian police spokesman said.
The Wilderness Air flight left Strahan at 5pm for a scenic flight over the upper Gordon River and Franklin River.
It was about 50 minutes into the 80-minute flight when a warning light indicated danger on the plane's control panel.
Water police and local Queenstown police, ambulance and fire crews, the Westpac rescue chopper and the SES were all dispatched as the plane landed on the lake just east of Queenstown. At 6.18pm, the plane safely landed and the passengers applauded their pilot.
The single-engine aircraft skidded on to a mudflat as police and rescue crews watched from a jetty.
Queenstown's Senior Constable Jayson Taws said as Mr Pearce steered the plane parallel to the lake's surface, he dipped the floats from side to side in the water.
The manoeuvre slowed the plane for a controlled landing.
"He skidded on to a mudflat and the plane came to a halt," Sen-Constable Taws said. "They got out unscathed and then they walked up to the jetty."
Sen-Constable Taws said the passengers marvelled at the pilot's skill and quick thinking.
"They're chuffed. They're loving him at the moment," Sen-Constable Taws said. "They think he's a legend."
He said local pilots were skilled at steering their planes around rugged terrain.
"It's wilderness out here and it's wild country," he said.
The Cessna was chartered from Wilderness Air, of Strahan, which has been operating seaplane tours since 1985.
AusSAR, the national maritime and aviation search and rescue service, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority are investigating.
Wilderness Air and Queenstown police last night took the passengers from Lake Burbury to Strahan.