Plane ditches off Brampton Island
 

Hope they are located safe and well :sad:

Fortunately all 5 occupants have been located safely.

Good luck, or good management?

Who cares!

Well done that pilot!

Dr :8

The ole 'six' doesn't normally glide too well .... ! :{

No, but they appear to be a good machine to ditch - given this outcome and the one in Torres Str last year (?).

Pity the pilot of the one that went in at Hamilton Is didn't put it in the drink!

Dr :8

Hey Forkie
Unless he/she fecked up really bad by leaving a fuel tank selector off/uncovered a port while climbing with low fuel......or something.

You could post a reply like.......Pretty Fecking dumb way to go for a swim!

Might get ya banned.:ok:

Jaba:}

(Glad all survived and hopefully not harmed)

Nah Jaba, that would get you banned from the Recreational Pilots Forum by the "Good Taste Nazi", but probably not on Proone!

Dr :8

Looks like she was a 19 year old CPL. Did a great job of getting it down and everyone was joking in the water about it whilst waiting for the rescue helo. Source: The Courier mail.

Good for her i say :ok:

Anyone know if it was the Six that services Keswick Island?

(Just curious, not waiting to take a stab if it was)

Female pilot, 21, in 'textbook ditching'

A 21-year-old female pilot on her first day on the job has performed a "textbook ditching" to save the lives of her four passengers in the sea off Mackay.

All five on board survived when the Cherokee Piper 6 crashed into the sea 200m off Squeaky Beach on Carlisle Island just after 2pm today.

Australasian Jet general manager Paul Sawyer said the aircraft had been only a few minutes into its flight from Brampton Island to Mackay when pilot Kate English, in her first "official" day on the job, experienced engine trouble.

"The pilot suffered engine problems and turned back towards the point of departure, but on the way back the engine completely stopped," he said.
Mr Sawyer said Ms English carried out a "textbook ditching".
"It was textbook as you'll ever come across. We're very proud of the pilot," he said.

"We invest a lot of time, money and effort into the training of our staff and consquently the pilot has assisted all of the passengers out of the aircraft and everyone is there to tell the story."

Mr Sawyer said Ms English, who has worked with the company for a few months, had also worked as a flight instructor.

He said she instructed the four passengers, believed to be two couples leaving the island after a holiday, to don lifejackets and swim away from the plane when they landed in the water.

"She made the comment the passengers were actually laughing in the water, while bobbing in jackets," Mr Sawyer said.

"It was only about 18 minutes from the emergency call she made to the time rescue helicopter found them."

Mr Sawyer had nothing but praise for the young pilot.

"She is very good, a more than capable pilot," he said.

"She has worked in the region for many years and is well respected throughout the Mackay region as a pilot."

Mr Sawyer said it was unfortunate the ditching happened – "it can happen, but the best outcome has occurred".

"There's only a little bit of lost luggage."

All the plane's occupants were taken back to the island for observation by the RACQ CQ Rescue helicopter.

It was understood none of the group suffered serious injuries. They were to be flown to Mackay Base Hospital.

"They all appear to be fine," a helicopter rescue spokeswoman said.



Good effort for a girlie!!! LOL Love the way they just have to mention the "female pilot". What bl**dy difference does it make FFS

Di :O

VH-ZMP

Well done to the Pilot for all passengers walking away, lets just wait to see what the ATSB has to say about the text book bit.

Does anyone here know much about the fuel system in the Cherokee 6 ?, was it a 260 or 300HP ?, or what the relative humidity was ?.

Well I hope she gets a promotion!

She has earned it!

J:ok:

.... any landing you walk away from is a good landing right?...

too bad about the plane!

good to see they all 'walked away'

Pyro, they DIDN"T!

They swam away!

Dr :8

Why?

4 tanks (can't remember capacities)- not hard to drain a tip tank dry.

I suspect the RH was low.

Dr :8

I seem to recall, 1 hour in each tip and about 1 1/2 in each main = 90USG

tipsy

Possibly PA32-300, VH-AMJ ?

Lucky it was today and not a couple of days ago. The water off the end of 14 at Brampton looks scary in 25 knots even in an ampib caravan - definitely not fun to go swimming in. Today would have been just about ideal ditching conditions - between 10 and 15 knots south easterly giving reasonably flat water with enough surface texture to give good height perception above the water.

Fantastic work, there is no such thing as good luck in a ditching I think, only good management!
And good work by the rescue chopper to be there so quick.
I hope permission was given for the close up photos to be passed onto the media. I don't think I'd want my face all over the media until I'd had a proper chance to process my thoughts....and that wouldn't be for me still dripping wet...it would take a number of beers for that to occur.

Onya Kate! Don't bother listening to the wannabees on here. You got your engine failure out of the way early, it's all up from here girl! Delighted to hear you are ok!

Erin's dad.