The partner of a pilot killed in a catastrophic plane crash in far north Queensland three years ago has called on the aviation industry to enforce critical safety upgrades to alert if planes are too close to the ground.
Key points:
- The families of the Lockhart River plane crash victims have given statements at a coronial inquest that wrapped up in Cairns yesterday
- The families have called for better safety equipment on board small planes
- An expert says a combination of scenarios may have caused the crash
A coronial inquest wrapped up in Cairns on Thursday after hearing evidence into the crash of the Cessna 404 Titan, which hit sand dunes near Lockhart River on March 11, 2020.
The five men onboard, all from Cairns, were killed — Wayne Ganter, 63, Henry Roebig, 62, Wayne Brischke, 57, Mark Rawlings, 49, and pilot Stuart Weavell, 36.
The QBuild workers were going to carry out work on a local school when the plane crashed on a second landing attempt in poor visibility after taking off from Cairns earlier that morning.
Mr Weavell’s partner Liz Thomas, who is also a pilot, gave evidence on the fourth and final day before Northern Coroner Nerida Wilson.
Ms Thomas urged the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to extend a terrain avoidance warning system and "better instruments less likely to be misread" to all passenger-carrying and freight planes.
"I call on customers of the general aviation industry, government departments, large companies and their insurers to carefully consider the risk their employees face," she said.
Combination of scenarios
Flight expert witness Peter Schott told the court Mr Weavell may have confused the navigation waypoints that guided pilots to a runway.
"I propose he's misidentified the waypoints — Echo Foxtrot and Echo India — but he’s also transposed the digits from 4.2 to 2.4, which is a very common error under stress and pressure," he said.
Mr Schott also said a microburst — a powerful gust of air — may have hit the plane, causing the unexplained increases in airspeed and rate of descent.
"There can be a lot of change to headwind, which rapidly changes to a tail wind," he said.
"There can be a lot of change to headwind, which rapidly changes to a tail wind."
Devastating impact
One by one, loved ones of the men who perished gave emotional testimony on the final day, all describing their grief that has lingered since the crash three years ago.
The pilot’s mother, Dawn Weavell, spoke of her son’s idyllic childhood on a lychee farm in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, becoming a lawyer, before retraining as a pilot.
"He would work incredibly hard checking all the flight planning, making sure everything lined up and he had all his I’s dotted and his T’s crossed," she said.
"He will be the son and brother who only talks to us in our dreams."
Wayne Ganter’s widow Lisa said their three children and six grandchildren missed him every day.
"I'm lonely every night that I go to bed, and I miss all the things that we would have done in our future together," she said.
Robyn Roebig said her husband Henry loved the remote flying trips as part of his job with QBuild.
“A big hole that was will never be filled has been left by the deaths of all five men on that flight," she said.
Sharon Rawlings held up a photo of her son Mark to the court.
"This is Mark Rawlings, my son, the girls' brother. This is somebody we cannot replace."
Coroner Wilson will hand down her findings at a later date.