Finding into death of Ian Cook
Deceased
Ian Cook
Demographics
60y, male
Date of death
2016-03-13
Finding date
2018-10-23
Cause of death
Injuries sustained in a light plane incident
AI-generated summary
Ian Cook, an experienced weight-shift microlight pilot with 86 hours flying time, crashed into terrain during a television filming event at Yarrawonga Aerodrome on 13 March 2016, killing himself and cameraman passenger Quoc Huong Vu. Cook was flying at below-regulation height while attempting to land in the presence of dust devils (convective turbulence). The coroner found pilot error directly contributed to the incident—most likely failure to maintain sufficient airspeed during landing approach. Environmental factors (dust devils) adversely influenced his ability to control the aircraft. No mechanical failure was identified. The investigation highlights systemic issues: the informal event arrangement, under-resourcing of aviation incident investigation bodies, and concerns about weight-shift microlight training and recency requirements, particularly for high-performance aircraft wings.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Specialties
Error types
Contributing factors
- Pilot error—failure to maintain sufficient airspeed when attempting to land
- Flying at below-regulation height during circuit approach
- Adverse effect of convective turbulence (dust devils) on aircraft control
- Informal event arrangement without structured planning or risk assessment
- Passenger movement or camera positioning within aircraft may have affected weight distribution and handling
Coroner's recommendations
- The Australian Transport Safety Bureau undertake an investigation to determine the proportion of weight shift microlight trikes involved in accidents and incidents compared to other recreational aircraft
- The Australian Transport Safety Bureau provide the results of their investigation to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority so that they may consider the viability of stronger recency requirements for pilots operating weight shift microlight trikes
- The Secretary of the Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities consider implementing measures to ensure increased available resources for organisations delegated the Australian Transport Safety Bureau's legislative responsibility to investigate civil aviation incidents
- The Secretary of the Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities consider implementing measures to ensure the Australian Transport Safety Bureau directly investigates all civil aviation incidents resulting in fatality
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