A seaplane crash has claimed the lives of two overseas tourists and the pilot as it attempted to take off from Rottnest Island off the coast of Perth. Three other passengers were pulled to safety from the wreckage by people on nearby boats.
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00:00Tragedy in paradise. The seaplane plunged into the water soon after take-off from Rottnest
00:08Island's Thompson Bay. Nearby holidaymakers scrambling to help.
00:12We were fishing off a fuel jetty and there was police that raced off, but we didn't know
00:17what it was.
00:18About five minutes later this guy on a Santa Console boat speeding towards us. He looked
00:23like he was about to hit us, but then he started shouting, oh we need help. There'd been a
00:27plane crash.
00:28There were seven people on board. The bodies of three, a Swiss woman, a Danish man, both
00:32in their 60s, and the 34-year-old West Australian pilot, James Wong, were recovered from the
00:38wreckage by police divers overnight.
00:41The pictures would have been seen by all Australians as they'd woken up this morning and my heart's
00:48go out to all those involved.
00:50Four people were rescued from the water and airlifted to Perth, including the partners
00:55of the two overseas visitors who died, and a West Australian couple.
01:00Three of those people are recovering in hospital, ranging from very minor injuries to a very
01:06serious hand injury.
01:07Praise for witnesses from private boats visiting the island who rushed to the scene to help
01:12emergency services.
01:14They put their own safety at risk to help complete strangers who were in desperate need.
01:20Investigations are underway into what caused the crash. There were early unconfirmed reports
01:25that the plane had hit a large rock, while the Australian Transport Safety Bureau says
01:30it had received reports the plane hit the water during take-off.
01:34Aviation officials arrived here a short time ago to begin their investigation. In the meantime,
01:40there's a 200-metre exclusion zone around the crash site, with parts of the wreckage
01:44still underwater.