{"id":20528,"date":"2017-01-27T10:51:27","date_gmt":"2017-01-27T10:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=20528"},"modified":"2017-01-27T10:51:27","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T10:51:27","slug":"two-die-in-plane-crash-watched-by-australia-day-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/world-news\/two-die-in-plane-crash-watched-by-australia-day-crowd.html","title":{"rendered":"Two die in plane crash watched by Australia Day crowd"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Two die in plane crash watched by Australia Day crowd<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Two die in plane crash watched by Australia Day crowd:-<\/strong> The Grumman G-73 “Mallard” flying boat nosedived into Swan River in Western Australia’s capital just after 17:00 local time on Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pilot Peter Lynch, 52, and his girlfriend Endah Cakrawati, 30, were the sole occupants, police said.<\/span><\/p>\n

An annual fireworks celebration, expected to draw 300,000 people to the river, was immediately cancelled.<\/span><\/p>\n

Western Australia Police acting commissioner Stephen Brown said the cause of the crash was being investigated.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I was actually standing on the Perth foreshore doing a live cross to one of the TV channels when the tragic events unfolded in the sky above me,” he said on Friday.<\/span>
\n “It clearly had broken at least in two significant parts, and was sinking very quickly.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Lynch was a father of three, according to Fortescue Metals Group, where he worked as a mining executive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms Cakrawati was a public relations manager for Cokal, an Australian-listed coal company.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Peter was a great mate and all of us at Fortescue convey our deepest condolences to his family, including his three children, and to Endah’s family,” Fortescue chief Nev Power said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Lynch was described as “well-loved and respected” by the Great Eastern Fly-In, an aviation community.<\/span><\/p>\n

Crowd shocked<\/span><\/p>\n

Witness Lloyd Douglas, who was on a nearby boat, said the plane appeared to stall as it turned towards the city.<\/span><\/p>\n

“As he banked left he seemed to go further to the left … and lose forward momentum and lost altitude fairly quickly,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another onlooker, Craig Newill, said the accident shocked his family.<\/span><\/p>\n

“[The] wings were pointing to the sky and to the water and we thought ‘this is not good’, then we saw it break into two pieces,” he told Perth Now.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Brown told reporters it was fortunate the plane did not hit the crowd.<\/span><\/p>\n

“For reasons yet unknown, it’s entered the waterway, thankfully without injuring anyone else on the ground or any other people who are here the event,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi said the fireworks were cancelled out of respect to the victims and to “conserve the integrity of the [crash] site”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-australia-38741670<\/span><\/div>\n

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