Federal transport safety investigators descended on Rottnest Island on Wednesday to start building a thorough sequence of events leading up to Tuesday’s fatal seaplane crash, which officials confirmed had killed three people.
Officers from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, tasked with investigating the crash, arrived at the island preparing to raise the wreckage of the plane from the seabed, which could hold crucial clues about what went wrong.
It came as the Perth pilot killed in the Rottnest Island seaplane crash was identified as 34-year-old James Wong — one of three people whose bodies were recovered late on Tuesday.
Speaking in Perth, Premier Roger Cook confirmed a 65-year-old Swiss woman, and a 60-year-old Danish man who were visiting WA with their partners, were killed along with Mr Wong when the Swan River Seaplanes-operated aircraft crashed into Thomson Bay shortly after 4pm on Tuesday.
Mr Cook, along with Police Commissioner Col Blanch, heaped praise on members of the public who rushed to help victims of the crash, remarking on the horror witnesses would have seen while on holiday on the idyllic island.
Arriving on Rottnest on Wednesday, ATSB chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said the agency would build a thorough timeline of events and decisions leading up to the crash, with a preliminary report due in two months.
“We’ll look at the whole sequence of events. So certainly, the weather, the takeoff speed, the weight, the balance,” he said.
“We only have a number of seconds of the aircraft was in flight, so we’ll be focusing very heavily on what occurred in those seconds.”
Mr Mitchell said the plane was largely intact, with the operation to raise the wreckage planned for Thursday morning, with the first few days critical for gathering information about the plane.
“We spend the first couple of weeks gathering all the information that potentially we may need to use, and that is, as I’ve mentioned, going to the (Bureau of Meteorology), but also looking at any of the radio calls that were made at the time,” he said.
“(We also look at) what was the pre-planning that was done. There’s a lot of things that happen before these flights take place, and there are processes that we get digital records of.”
Upstream Aviation director Tim Collins told The West Australian the plane could have had an aerodynamic stall on takeoff.
“I think it was an error. I think the takeoff was not fast enough and I think the aircraft stalled,” he said.
“All aircraft have to achieve a certain speed before they can take off, and that’s to do with the airflow over the top of the wings and if you have insufficient airflow over the top of the wings then it’s not a nice, smooth airflow.
“If it’s too slow it becomes turbulent and the wing loses lift and will dip. If you look at the video, you can see the left wing clearly dipping, and that’s where the aircraft goes into the water”
He said it was possible the pilot “took off a little bit quickly, wanted to get off the water because it was rough and didn’t have quite enough flying speed”.
The ATSB investigations would also include the history of the plane — which had only been received by new owners Swan River Seaplanes a week ago. Flight records show that before it arrived in WA on New Year’s Day, it had not flown for more than nine months.
Aviation safety firm Avlaw director Ronald Bartsch said that after having viewed videos of the crash, “an engine malfunction” or a “low-speed take-off leading to a stall” may have resulted in the trio’s death.
He added that investigators would determine whether regular maintenance was conducted on the aircraft while it was inactive for nine months before it was purchased by Swan River Seaplanes and flown over 60 times since January 1 this year.
“There is a requirement for all aircraft, in terms of determining their airworthiness even if they’re not flying, there’s still a certain degree of maintenance that needs to be performed,” Professor Bartsch said.
Swan River Seaplanes director, and WA Tourism commissioner, Kristy Bailey told 7NEWS on Wednesday there had been no issues identified with the plane when they had received it.
In a statement, Ms Bailey said the priority was “always our passengers and staff.”
“We have paused our services during this time to focus on supporting our team and reaching out to the families of passengers to offer support,” she said.
“Swan River Seaplanes was established in 2017 with a 100 per cent safety record until the tragic incident yesterday.
“In due course, we will be able to provide you with more information and notify you about the resumption of our services.”
The company was founded by tourism and aviation professionals, Ms Bailey, Troy Thomas and Dean Kingi in 2016, receiving its first agreement to land on the Swan River in 2017 from former premier Colin Barnett.
Mr Blanch said divers recovered the three victims from the submerged wreckage, which was at a depth of eight metres, on Tuesday night.
“It was a very difficult and dangerous operation for those divers, but important, certainly for the families, to bring the investigation to the next step,” he said.
Mr Blanch said several triple-0 calls were made to police before a “large-scale” response — including up to 60 offices — began, including members of the public “immediately jumping into action to save lives”.
He said the focus was now on the operation to recover the remainder of the aircraft from Thomson Bay — which had been closed off by an exclusion zone on Wednesday.
“It’s a complex operation. It’s achievable, and certainly, we’ve got very good capability here in Western Australia to achieve the outcome, but it will just take thorough planning and safety,” he said.
“No person is to go into that area and crowd that area and we’ve also got the Department of Transport assisting us with that.”
Mr Cook said early reports were that the plane had tried to take off from Thomson Bay about 4pm before witnesses saw it crash into the water before hitting Philip Rock but after viewing footage of the crash, those reports had not been confirmed.
“The tragedy unfolded in front of many tourists, including families with children who were on the island enjoying the summer holidays, and it may have been distressing for those who witnessed the event,” Mr Cook said.
“My thoughts go out to the families and friends of the victims.
“This is, no doubt, very difficult for everyone involved and on behalf of every West Australian, I want you to know that you’re in our thoughts and prayers.”
Mr Blanch said police had started an investigation on behalf of the coroner, on top of the probe from ATSB.