British businessman had sent out wedding invitations days before deadly Sydney seaplane crash

The British businessman who died in a seaplane crash near Sydney on New Year’s Eve along with his two sons, his fiancée and her 11-year-old daughter had sent out wedding invitations just days before the tragedy.

Richard Cousins, 58, his bride-to-be, Emma Bowden, 48, his two sons, Edward, 23, and Will, 25, and her daughter, Heather, were killed when the plane hit the Hawkesbury River.

They died along with the aircraft’s experienced pilot, 44-year-old Gareth Morgan, after the plane crashed into the water and sank.

Mr Cousins, the chief executive of FTSE 100 company Compass Group, was on a holiday in Australia with his family.

He and Ms Bowden planned to marry in July. His first wife, Caroline, died from cancer three years ago.

A neighbour of the businessman in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, told the Mail Online he had received a wedding invitation for the planned ceremony.

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Meanwhile, investigators say they will be looking into whether there were any similarities to incidents involving the same model of seaplane, including one which killed another British family in 2015.

Air accident investigators are examining the wreckage of the De Havilland DHC-2 Beaver.

The incident has drawn comparisons to a crash in Quebec, Canada, in August 2015, involving another CHC-2 Beaver plane, in which a British family of four died.

The small aircraft crashed into the side of a mountain, also killing a French passenger and the pilot.

On Tuesday, Nat Nagy, executive director of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, told a press conference that all incidents involving the same model of plane would be looked into as part of the investigation.

He said: “We will be looking at any previous incidents and accidents specifically around this type of aircraft.

“It’s been in use and service for many decades so we will be thoroughly looking at it.

“I think it’s important not to draw any conclusions that this is something that is a systemic issue. We haven’t identified anything previously that there’s anything systemic.

“Over the course of this week we will be able to piece together the factors surrounding the accident and from there, if we do identify any issue that is a safety critical issue, we will notify the appropriate authorities immediately.”

Mr Nagy said the aircraft was manufactured in 1963, and that it was not unusual to have a plane of that age still in use.

The exact circumstances surrounding Sunday’s crash remain unclear, and investigators are working to reconstruct the events leading up to it.

Mr Nagy said the Sydney Seaplanes flight had left Cottage Bay Inn, where the family had reportedly enjoyed a meal, at about 3pm, for a return flight to Rose Bay, near Sydney Harbour.

He said the plane made a right hand turn prior to the impact with the water about 10 minutes later.

His team will now be examining the aircraft data to find out what happened at the time of the incident, including whether the plane was operating at full power and whether it was climbing or descending at the time.

After the Canadian crash in 2015, a report by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) found the plane, operated by Air Saguenay, stalled in a steep turn and descended vertically before crashing into the mountain and bursting into flames.

Fiona Hewitt, 52, her husband Richard, 50, and children 14-year-old Harry and 17-year-old Felicity, all from Milton Keynes, died.

The TSB recommended that the Candian Department of Transport required that all commercial DHC-2 aircraft in Canada be fitted with a stall warning alarm.

Mr Nagy said it was not yet clear whether the plane involved in the Sydney crash had a warning system fitted.