Australian authorities have determined that carbon monoxide poisoning was behind the mysterious crash of a floatplane near Sydney that killed the high-time Beaver pilot and five members of a prominent British family. On New Year’s Eve 2017, pilot Gareth Morgan, of Sydney Seaplanes, inexplicably lost control of the radial engine-equipped De Havilland Beaver floatplane while setting up to land on Jerusalem Bay in good visibility and benign weather. Morgan, 44, who had more than 10,000 hours on the Beaver, was killed along with Richard Cousins, CEO of Compass group, and four of Cousins’ family members. Investigators couldn’t find anything wrong with the airplane or the pilot and were stumped for a cause until an Australian Transportation Safety Board doctor suggested they look for CO in the tissues of the victims earlier this year.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/australians-sleuth-out-co-as-cause-of-floatplane-crash