Leighton Beach plane crash: ATSB finds poor fuel management a factor in mother and son’s aircraft ditching

An investigation into a light plane crash off a Fremantle beach, in which a mother and son were lucky to survive, has found errors in fuel management by the pilot. Pilot Michelle Yeates and her 15-year-old son were flying home from Exmouth on April 20 when their plane engine suddenly cut out, forcing Ms Yeates to crash the craft about 20 to 30m offshore at Leighton Beach in North Fremantle. Once she landed, her son got the door open quickly and they got out as the plane was going down. The pair were able to swim to the shore to shocked onlookers who rushed to help them. Ms Yeates and her son were taken to hospital for observation but remarkably they were uninjured. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau on Tuesday released its final report, which found that proper fuel management procedures were missed. Ms Yeates had left Carnarvon with enough fuel on board for the planned flight but did not carry out regular fuel quantity checks in accordance with regulatory guidance, or keep a written log of fuel consumed from each tank during the flight. ATSB director Transport Safety Stuart Macleod said the findings highlighted the importance of good fuel management. “The engine power issues probably occurred due to a lack of fuel in the selected right tank,” Mr Macleod said. “The pilot responded to power anomalies by carrying out some of the emergency procedures but did not select the other — left — tank, which contained usable fuel. “For aircraft with separate tank selections, it is advisable to monitor the fuel consumed, and fuel remaining, for each tank.”Following the accident, Ms Yeates told ABC News the engine “just cut out”. She said she tried to pilot the plane as close to the beach as she could without hitting anybody. “I was only at 1500 feet, I didn’t have much time to react so I just sent out a mayday to the tower and then just turned around and landed on the water,” she said. She said she was telling her son “Mate, we’ve just had engine failure, we’re going to have to land on the beach”. “He was like ‘For real, are you for real?’. I said, ‘Hopefully this is the most exciting thing that’s going to happen in your life and we’re going to be okay.’” Ms Yeates said she tried to land at the right angle so the plane didn’t flip over. Describing the landing as a “forceful stop”, Ms Yeates set the plane down on the ocean. “I hit the water, and it (the plane) skidded along,” she said. “We took our seat belts off hot, climbed through the door, and stood on the wing. “People swam out from the beach and asked us if we were okay. We jumped in the water and swam back to shore.” Beverley Port-Louis was at the beach with her family when she saw the plane crash. “I saw the plane coming across the water and I at first thought it was a water plane but as it came closer I realised it wasn’t,” she said. Mr Macleod said that often when a plane engine underwent partial power loss, which could be ambiguous, it could disrupt a pilot’s implementation of emergency procedures.