Rottnest plane crash: ATSB to release preliminary report on Thursday after pilot and passengers killed

The plane crash investigator will release its preliminary report into the fatal accident which killed three people off Rottnest. A spokesman for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said the initial report into the crash — which resulted in the deaths of pilot James Wong and two foreign tourists — will be released at 8.30am on Thursday. It follows an extensive investigation which probed factors including maintenance, aircraft operation and possible human error. Maintenance records, wreckage, and flight data obtained from the Cessna 208 Caravan Amphibian was examined by the ATSB after it crashed in the waters of Thomson Bay, at Rottnest Island, on January 7. Parts of the plane were flown to Canberra to assist with the investigation. Weather patterns on the day also form part of the probe. ATSB chief commissioner Angus Mitchell previously said investigators would also gather information from mobile phones, hundreds of witnesses and the four survivors. He will address media on Thursday following the release of the preliminary report. It is unclear when the full report will be released. The West Australian revealed last month that concerns from a prospective buyer of the same plane were raised with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority on January 2. The prospective buyer claimed it had not been properly maintained while in storage in NSW for nine months. Six days after the concerns were raised, the plane crashed into Thomson Bay, killing pilot James Wong, Danish tourist Torben Poulsen, 60, and Swiss woman Danielle Grundbacher-Mosching, 65. Mr Poulsen’s wife — Danish woman Hanna Esmee Duer, 58 — and the 63-year-old husband of Mrs Grundbacher-Mosching, Andreas Mosching — survived. West Australians Jeremy and Patricia Connor also managed to escape, with the pair claiming Mr Wong’s safety demonstration aided in their survival. “We will never forget and will always be grateful that his demonstration of how to open the emergency exit was a critical factor in our survival,” the couple said in a statement. Flight records indicate that before it was flown to Perth from the Sydney suburb of Bankstown on New Year’s Day, the plane had not flown since March last year. CASA did not say whether the lack of maintenance allegations were investigated by the agency before the crash. It said all relevant safety checks were completed before it was flown in Perth by Swan River Seaplanes. “Necessary maintenance checks were conducted in Perth before the seaplane entered into service,” the agency said. In the wake of the crash, the CASA said Swan River Seaplanes “ceased operations and we are working with (CASA) to gather further information”. On Wednesday, the seaplane operator’s website appeared to have available flight bookings to Rottnest from March 23rd onwards. The website said the companies’ services were “currently unavailable until March 2025”.