Crash at Hamilton Island
 

7 News Brisbrane are reporting a "Light Plane" crash south of Hamo. Fatalities involved.

At least two people are dead after a light plane crashed on Hamilton Island in Queensland's Whitsundays late this afternoon.

The crash happened around 5:30pm.

A spokeswoman for Hamilton Island resort says few details are available at this stage and authorities are making their way to the island.

ABC News.

Condolances to all involved

ABC News Online
Posted: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 19:04 AEST

Six confirmed dead after Hamilton Island plane crash

Six people are confirmed dead, after a light plane crashed in the Whitsundays in Queensland.

The single engine Piper Cherokee Six plane took off from Hamilton Island just after 5:00pm AEST.

Peter Gibson, from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, says the plane crashed into a quarry at the end of the island's runway.

Police and air safety authorities are travelling to the scene.

I would be interested to know if this was HIA as they used to operate VH-PPG which was unfortunatley lost in what I believe to be an injury free fire at Schute (spelling..?) Harbour.


A sad day indeed,

Our thoughts are with the families of those involved......

Willie

AAP

Island resort air crash
By Chris Herde
September 26, 2002

SIX people died when a light aircraft crashed and burst into flames shortly after take-off from Queensland's Hamilton Island resort.

Investigators said the six stood no chance as the single-engined Piper Cherokee 6-300, fully laden with fuel, smashed into a quarry near the end of the island's Great Barrier Reef Airport around 5.30pm (AEST).

The plane was carrying five passengers, four of whom were believed to be from the one family, and a pilot.

The plane was on a charter flight and was operated by Hamilton Island Aviation.

An Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) spokesman confirmed all on board had died in the crash.

Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said the aircraft lost control shortly after take-off.

"Because it was full of fuel it has burst into flames and everyone has perished on board," Mr Gibson told Sky News.

"There was no chance of any survivors."

Mr Gibson said weather conditions were good.

"So at this stage it's a mystery as to what went wrong," he said.

Mr Gibson said it was unclear early tonight where the aircraft was headed, but the company involved operated charter flights between Hamilton, the mainland and other islands in the Whitsunday group.

Air crash investigators would examine the wreckage at first light tomorrow and interview witnesses.

"We'll be putting all that information together to get a very good picture of exactly what went wrong," Mr Gibson said.

"It's too early to speculate at this stage as to what causes may have been in place."

Mr Gibson said the runway at Hamilton was about 1700m long and was capable of taking large jets.

"So there's nothing there that's difficult for a small six-seater light aircraft," he said.

Mr Gibson said he was not aware of any previous accidents at Hamilton.

The crash is another blow to the island resort which has been financially hit by September 11 and the Ansett collapse a year ago.

Hamilton Island Ltd recently started looking to sell off assets to maintain its share price after recording a 51.1 per cent fall in net profit.

Queensland Tourism Industry Corporation chief executive Daniel Gschwind described the accident as a terrible tragedy.

"When aviation accidents occur it's terrible for all concerned," he said.

"I don't know the circumstances but the air services on the island have been operating for some time and I understand they had an unblemished safety record."

AAP

If the Cherokee 6-300 is accurate then it would be VH-MAR.
ICC is a 260.

Info on Pilot Please
 

My thoughts are with the family and friends of all involved.

If anyone has any information regarding the pilot involved I would very much apprieciate it. My friend that works for HIA is uncontactable.

There is no requirement to release any indentity. But information regarding if he was new to the company, or where previously worked would help.

A very sad day! Let us remember our fellow pilots. :( :( :(

Signed: very concerned friends

27 September 2002

Crash investigators are expected on Hamilton Island in Queensland shortly to being their probe into the light plane tragedy that has killed an Auckland family.

A married couple and their two children died when the Piper Cherokee they were in crashed soon after takeoff.

They have been named as Aucklanders Kevin and Joanne Bowles, their daughter Sophie and son Michael and were killed when the aircraft crashed soon after taking off from Hamilton Island.

The pilot and an American tourist also died when the pilot lost control of the aircraft.

Investigators from the Air Transport Safety Bureau will be at the scene later this morning.

Queensland police spokeswoman Sergeant Julie Elliot says a special police unit will also arrive on the island this morning.

Aviation officials say the weather was fine and there is no obvious reason for the crash.

Hamilton Island is one of 74 tropical islands that lie between the Queensland Coast and the Great Barrier Reef.

It is the largest tourist facility in the Whitsundays, with six hotels providing 750 rooms and apartments. The resort is serviced by nearly 50 flights a week from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Cairns.


© 2002 NZCity, IRN

the pilot was quite new to the company, his name has not been released.

condolences to all.

R.I.P.

bboy, I think you're right with that rego. Although the aircraft was operated by HIA, it was registered to Heli-Aust Tourism Pty Ltd. From my checks of the register VH-MAR had to be the one. Another very sad day in aviation.

:( Years ago I had an engine failure after take-off in a Cherokee Six, fully laden:eek:, and got it going again by immediately changing tanks. Pants also needed changing.:o The four tanks and a fuel selector valve and lever designed by Groucho Marx have probably claimed another aircraft.:mad: I don't mean to pre-empt the investigation like this, but that system is just like so much complete bollocks. It is just too easy to think you have the, say, left main selected with the lever, but the valve may still be drawing from, say, the left tip. You have to positively ensure the lever is seated in the detent. A visual check isn't good enough.

My instructor would not let me fly solo in it unless I had passed an oral examination on the fuel system and its traps, including knowing the time it took for fuel to travel the lines from the tip tanks (14 seconds at full power to 35 seconds at approach power - I can still remember!). And when the failure occurred to me, you can guess what my instructor did ...:rolleyes:

Deadhead,

I'm sure you mean well, but the content of your post is of no relavance to the pertaining situation, of no comfort to the relatives involved, and could easily be picked up upon as authoritive information by the journo's who scan this site searching for titilating headlines.

Regards,
Goatgruff.

News and witness reports of an attempted return to land, sounds distressingly familiar and the crash pics back it up.

My dim memory tells me that it's very very hard to fill a Cherokee 6 with full fuel and 6 standard - weight POB without busting MTOW by some spectacular amount ...

Goatgruff, I don't see any problem with Deadhead informing us about what he considers a complicated aircraft type fuel system. this site is probably not viewed by relatives and journos will write whatever they want.

To all involved I send my condolences, we are a small community and we need to offer support to each other because we dont know what is around the corner.We are in a competive environment but who cares get away from the negative and see the positives we are very lucky in what we do!!!!

Luke SkyToddler,

I beleive two of the occupants were young children. Having a few facts in hand is a usefull thing!

heart felt condolences to all involved in this. interested to read in earlier report about the plane having full tanks...from memory this machine had a mzfw limit of 1412 with tow 1542 which was always an issue. must have been very close to mzfw, in which case full tips and a little in each main for t/o and ldg. i doubt very much that full tanks would have worked with a load like that, must be an error on the reporters behalf.

PA32 Figures
 

:( Condolences to those touched by this tragedy.

For those that are interested:

PA32
Basic Weight 920kg approx.
MZFW 1411kg
MTOW 1542kg
Main Tanks 90L each
Tip Tanks 68L each
Unsusable 1L per tank
Max baggage 2 x 45kg lockers

Hamilton Is. a/c load possibly:

Basic weight 920kg
Pilot 77kg
3 Adult pax 231kg
2 Child pax 92kg
ZFW 1320kg

Max Baggage 91kg
Max fuel with max baggage = 181L (Full tips + 45L in Mains)
Max Fuel with nil baggage = 308L (Full tips + 172 L in Mains)

Assuming all pax day trippers with 1 x 5kg bag each, then aircraft could have possibly carried a large fuel load.

Note: Std pax weights based on NZ figures.

R.I.P

S2K

Our local paper said that the aircraft had only been on the ground for 10 minutes prior to departure. Pretty quick to load 5 pax AND refuel isn't it?

Does Hamilton Island have fuel?

I have a real problem with the "Full Tanks" aspect.