An Australian pilot has been convicted of criminal charges in a fatal crash after his forced landing attempt went wrong. According to the BBC, Leslie Woodall was flying a Cessna 172N with three passengers over the Great Barrier Reef in 2017 when the engine quit. He told court he tried to turn the plane around to a landing spot on a beach behind them rather than ditch because the water was deep and infested with bull sharks. The plane stalled and cartwheeled, killing a 29-year-old British woman and injuring a 21-year-old Irish woman and 13-year-old boy. Woodall was also seriously hurt.
Prosecution witnesses testified Woodall should have kept descending with the wings level instead of attempting the turn. “It was not engine failure that caused the crash,” Crown Prosecutor David Nardone said. “The danger was created by the defendant’s choices.” The court was shown a video shot by the 13-year-old, who was in the right seat, and it showed the plane dipping the left wing before rapidly descending and striking the sand wing first with the stall horn sounding in the background. Woodall was convicted of dangerously operating a vehicle causing death and grievous bodily harm and given a two-year suspended sentence.
