Compass CEO's Plane Wreckage to Be Recovered in Search for Clues

(Bloomberg) -- The wreckage of the Sydney seaplane that crashed and killed Compass Group Plc Chief Executive Officer Richard Cousins is due to be recovered on Thursday as investigators search for clues.

The operation will start shortly after first light and the aircraft should be raised from the water around midday, New South Wales police said in a statement on Wednesday. The plane is largely intact and lying upside down on the bottom of the Hawkesbury river, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Sydney.

Air safety experts are hoping data from the flight instruments, or footage from cameras and phones left in the cabin, might explain why the single-engine aircraft plunged into the water on New Year's Eve. The DHC-2 Beaver Seaplane, which was built in 1963 and operated by Sydney Seaplanes, sank minutes after it hit the water, according to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

The pilot, 58-year-old Cousins and four members of his close family including his fiancee and two sons perished. They had taken a sightseeing flight from Sydney and had eaten at a restaurant on the banks of the river. They were on the return leg when the plane crashed. All bodies have been recovered.

Four men who saw the crash immediately sped to the scene by boat, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Three of them dived down and attempted to open the plane's door, but the water was too deep and clouded by aviation fuel. Their attempts to tow the plane to shore by its tail also failed, the ABC said.

Cousins was due to step down as CEO of Compass, the world's largest caterer, on March 31. He's been succeeded by Dominic Blakemore, formerly Compass's chief operating officer for Europe.

To contact the reporter on this story: Angus Whitley in Sydney at awhitley1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Johnson at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net.

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