Eildon “ultralight” crash

[kaz3g]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-08/person-missing-after-ultralight-crashes-into-water/11193404

[Sunfish]

A very, very sad day for the family concerned. It was a local trike with a rotax engine. It’s resting in about 10m of water.

[Squawk7700]

The pilot was reported by witnesses on channel 7 as flying at 20 metres height from the water whilst carrying his niece as passenger, going up and down over and over for one hour until the engine “cut out” and it sunk like a rock.

How many times has this happened on Lake Eildon before??? !!! * of course it could have been an amphibious version.

[Sunfish]

Squawk, the Channel 7 report is a half truth. It wasn’t an amphibious trike. We don’t know the cause. Nothing, including engine failure, can be ruled in or out. One witness may have said something about “round and round, over and over” but that comes from someone with no aviation experience and those weren’t quite the words I heard. The police will have the statements anyway. The pilot knew the area and was known enough around about for his flights to be unremarkable to locals.

Yes, The lake has killed a lot of people; mostly boaters who, exhilarated by the freedom of open water and glorious scenery, forget basic safety measures. This flight was mostly over land. The pilot almost made it back to land before colliding with the water. I’m told the lake bottom allegedly shelves quite steeply at the accident site 9-14m of water about 50m from shore in the old Goulburn river bed.

This is a very, very sad day for a well liked family. Let’s leave it at that mate.

[Squawk7700]

The witness seemed quite credible in his description of the event and based on his age and manner of speaking, was quite believable. It sounded like show-boating 20 metres above the water from him and the other witnesses that appeared later. If you weren’t there, then you aren’t any more qualified to comment any more than those that appeared on the TV.

I was referring to loss of life in aircraft. The one hitting the power line comes to mind where there were fatalities and the other one was the older chap in the Sapphire ultralight that was showboating some 5 ft above the water, however he survived.

[Allan L]

Quite so - not qualified to comment. However. To land-oriented persons (myself included) the term up-and-down doesn't necessarily mean 3-dimensional movement; it might, but then might not (eg. they ran up and down the street.) When one considers the stretch of water, up and down might just mean continual flight back and forth??? But then it mightn't?

PS. Wasn't the Sapphire incident abt 150 kms north-east of this incident, on a different lake?

[Squawk7700]

Good pickup, it was Lake Hume.

Eildon has 6 x power lines across it at one part carrying 220,000 volts that droop down to an altitude of 20 metres above the water. Eildon is not somewhere to be flying low over, for a multitude of reasons.

[Sunfish]

Squawk, I wrote a more detailed post regarding speculation, eye witnesses and this tragedy, but I deleted it out of respect and because none of you deserve an answer.

The body has been recovered which is a relief. Please pray for her family.

[Allan L]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-09/melbourne-woman-kathleen-canavan-killed-in-lake-eildon-crash/11194242

[machtuk]

Oh so tragic, can't imagine losing my daughter like that:-( I hope the authorities can shed some light on this awful outcome:-( RIP

[Sunfish]

According to newspaper reports, Mr. Canavan, the pilot, has recently been interviewed by the Police who are preparing a brief for the Coroner.

[Squawk7700]

Pretty standard practice for these kinds of events.