Kathy Kunz

Trish and Kathy, the faith and hope that you refer to, is all we have. As for closure, there is no such thing. I think it is an American invention. We cannot erase the memories of our loved ones, nor should we. The terrible tradgedy is unfortunately part of those memories. The pain does ease in time. If you think I sound like I speak from experience, you are correct. God Bless you both.Bob

Kathy, God is merciful.. Remember, He knows and cares when even so much as a sparrow falls from the sky, so how much more so for Chris and Michael on that day. I believe they would have been asleep in the twinkling of an eye and did not suffer. Continue to rest on that Hope you have, because we know for sure that Hope does not ultimately disappoint us. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things, unseen.The Lismore Coroner conducted a thorough fact-finding inquest into Michael and Josef's deaths, which took a long time. The Inquest took place exactly two years following the accident.

There were a couple of threads on this Forum, first about the tragedy and secondly reporting after the Inquest.

 

The Coroner's Report is published on the internet as it is for the general public to read. The boys' names are Michael James O'Keeffe and Josef Hainaut.

 

May God continue to uphold you as you face each day.

 

Shalom

 

Trish

God Bless

Kathy

Dear Kathy,My sincere sympathy is with you and your family. This is belated because I have only read this thread today after a long absence from looking into the forum. I am not a pilot, but am a grandmother of a young pilot who killed himself and his mate, at Tatham, not far from where your brother died with his mate, near Lismore. This accident was on 7th May, 2010. Michael was 27, and his passenger, Josef, was only 20.

I joined into this forum for similar reasons as yourself, to try to understand what happened, and how the tragedy could have been avoided.

 

The coroner found the accident could have been avoided and was due to my grandson's gross negligence in doing aerobatic tricks that he was not qualified to do.

 

I also share a Christian faith with you and I pray that you will be comforted by the certainty that God's promises will be fulfilled in His coming Kingdom where there will be no more tears and peace and love will surround you.

 

Shalom

 

Trish

We are yet to receive the coroners report which we have been told will take around 3 -6 months. Most of the time I want to know what caused the accident and some of the time I do not want to know as I fear that the the report might cause more pain . My daily prayer is that God was merciful when the impact happened and that Chris and Michael did not suffer . We rest on that hope and know for sure that Chris is at peace with his Maker whom he served faithfully .

Once again thank you and God Bless

Kathy

No need for any apologies, there are no bad memories any more, gladly with time we heal and become stronger for the experience, as you will. Sorry for you at the moment, be strong as your brother would have wished and keep in mind that your pain will pass.

No, the canopy is not a complete trap at all, the plane will always come to rest leaning to one side or the other and although you may not be able to open the doors you can always break out of one side or the other if you are OK after the flip.Kathy, I lost a very dear person to a crash and where fire was a factor and it gave me nightmares for a long while and as part of the healing process I researched a lot about the circumstances of such an incident. Understanding it better helped me to realise that the scene of horror that I had imagined probably wasn't like that at all.

 

Without going into any details or trying to guess what the condition of the crew was following the plane flipping just keep in mind that they wouldn't have known anything about the fire. The fire consumes all the oxygen in the vicinity very quickly and in combination with the smoke they would have been asleep in a few seconds and not known anything more.

 

I hope it helps you to know that.

I checked the ATSB site and on the 18th of December the ATSB published an update on the crash http://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2012/aair/ao-2012-149.aspxThe report describes an understandable scenario; they appear to have had some control, enough to arrest the rate of descent and set up for a landing into a very short paddock. From the photos, the aircraft post impact resting place looks horrific, absolutely no chance of survival in that roll over and resultant fire. If you look at the photos on the link the engine looks to be to have been not running at the point of impact (props bent back with no aggressive impact wear marks).

 

One scenario would have to be an engine failure followed by a emergency landing that went wrong. According to the report the aircarft lost left wheel and nose wheel on impact which would indicate a very hard landing. I can only imagine that if the aircarft had not tripped over on the concrete obstructions (not mentioned in the report) the accident was potentially survivable. Even if a fire had consumed the aircraft, they would have likely been able to exit if they escaped injury.

 

One of the substantial hazards of low wing designs where the roof canopy must open to escape is the inescapable circumstances when they flip over on their back.

 

Sadly that day the circumstances dished out an inescapable scenario for my mate Chris and his mate Michael.

 

Rest my brother, we will keep an eye out and a helping hand for Ryan and Jordan.

Sincere condolences to you and your family at this sad time Kathy.

Sincere condolences to you and your family at this sad time Kathy.

Kathy. Just a tip - when you do a reply you can also type directly underneath the quote (in the same box) so it keeps it all together.

Yes kathy, Welcome and thanks for joining us on this site. On reading the above mention of the concrete blocks laying in the grass, it reminded me of another incident that ended somewhat more positivly. Don't know if it will help you or not , but it is intended to be positive, and an indication that not all concrete blocks laying in the grass can be bad !...On an outback cattle station the owner often flew around in his Cessna 182, accompanied by his young teenage son who had a severe mental handicap. The kid had done a lot of flying with Dad over the years. They landed for lunch in front of the station house, on a short strip there. There was also a longer strip away from the homestead. Dad went in to prepare lunch, and later said that he had did two things that day that he didn't normally ever do....he left the keys in the ignition, and he turned the fuel OFF. Normal would be to remove the keys, and leave the fuel ON.

 

As Dad was in the house the son hopped in the plane, pushed all the levers foward just as dad did, and turned the start key.!.....The engine roared to full throttle and took off across a nearby grass paddock headed directly toward a large cattle yard. Now one of two things was going to happen...either the aircraft was going to lift off, and probabily crash shortly after, or it was going to hit the cattle yards with equally bad results. Before either could occur the propeller now spinning at full power hit a large concrete block laying hidden in the grass, with the engine stopping at the same time as the fuel was turned off !....the kid hopped out as if nothing had occurred . One prop tip went clean through the left wing and was never found, the other ended up lodged under the rudder pedals just below the kids' feet after passing through the engine bay and associated structure. As you can see not all blocks off concrete are bad !!...The father was very happy that one was there that day. After a new wing and engine /propellor the plane took off from that same strip about two months later, and as far as I know is still out there flying somewhere !....

 

I don't have anything else to offer you at this sad time of loss Kathy, so I hope this story may lighten your load in some small way.............................................Cheers, Maj...

Thank you Kathy for coming here and participating in this forum. I hope you do find closure and comfort in this difficult time. There are always a lot of if onlys, such as those concrete troughs, but unfortunately thats how it goes sometimes.

Thank you David for taking the time to reply to my post . I do know Hayley from when she lived in Sydney. He was stoked to have been asked to give Hayley away at her marraige to Lance. Chris was so excited about learning to fly . That was his dream when he was a young man in his twentys. The purchase of his plane was a secret from us all as I believe that he wanted to surprise us by flying it down to visit us .I will certainly stay in touch and I have taken it upon myself to keep you pilots on this site in my prayers . I will call you sometime .God Bless.

Hi Kathy,I think we have met, Shirley and I are old friends of Chris and Donna from the old Sydney days. We are also close friends of Haley Swanson who Chris gave away at her recent wedding we attended on the Gold Coast. I remember distinctly Chris being excited about learning to fly some years ago and then his secret that he had purchased the Tobago from overseas, he told me this at Haley's wedding in September, he was so excited.

We received a beautiful letter from Chris's oldest son Ryan today; the final newsletter of his fathers business announcing the sad loss and a great tribute to his God fearing father. Chris would have been so proud of him.

 

Stay in touch Kathy, I will post the ATSB findings when they are available. You can contact me on 0412 221 469 if you wish.

Hello David , I am new to this and I am not a pilot . I am Chris Bowles's sister . Thank you for all the lovely things you have said about Chris .Thank you for being his friend .Were you from the flying school or a business associate ? As for you , it was a shock to me when I received the call to say he had passed on and as a family are still trying to come to grips with what may have happened to Chris and Michael on the the day . I visited the site of the accident a week after it happened( the day before we said our farewells to Chris) . It was sad to envision what might have happened . As I said I am not a pilot but this is what we saw. The aircraft had come down into the paddock and had travelled for approx. 130 metre before going through a barbed wire fence . There was at this point a very marked impression of a left wheel tread( I guess this is the side Chris would have been on ) and this is where we think it went crazy . Just ahead of them were 2 concrete blocks (we think they were old feeding troughs ) protruding from the grass . This is where we were told they impacted and then flipped over into a gully .It is so sad to think if these were not there,possibly there would have been a slim chance of them getting out . I am so distressed to think what happened after this and can only hope that this tragedy will have never happen again . We cannot express how we feel - the loss immeasurable .I know Chris always told me he felt like a great big bird flying way up high and that he felt free !! You guys out there, pay heed to what your loved ones are saying .I would love to keep in touch as I need to to know more and understand what and why ??Perhaps this will be a closure for me ???????? or not. Thank you once again.

Chris's funeral was yesterday at Currumbin. Approximately 1,000 in attendance, he was well known in the business and church community and will be sadly missed.Some further information has come to light which indicates the aircraft was under some form of control as it impacted with the ground some 150 metres before the crash site. The aircraft went through a fence before descending down a trough like depression in the ground where it impacted with some concrete blocks which caused the aircraft to invert. Once inverted the occupants were trapped and sadly the ensuing fire consumed them. This is terribly tragic as otherwise they may have survived as I have been told the aircraft cabin was largely intact post impact, pre fire.

 

I am told the ATSB have taken the engine and one wing for further investigation. Hopefully the preliminary report due in about 30 days will give some understanding of how two qualified pilots can end up in this situation.

 

It would appear the stall spin possibility has been eliminated.

 

Rest in peace our dear friends.