Tributes are being paid the victims of a seaplane crash that killed a high-profile British executive and his family on New Year’s Eve.
Richard Cousins was on holiday with his fiancée, her daughter and his two sons when the aircraft they were flying in went down in a river north of Sydney.
The 58-year-old was chief executive of Compass Group, the world’s largest catering company, and was known as one of the world’s best-performing CEOs for turning around struggling firms including Tesco.
Officials said he was on a return flight from the picturesque Cottage Point to Rose Bay, in Sydney Harbour, when the seaplane was lost.
His fiancée Emma Bowden, 48, her 11-year-old daughter Heather Bowden, Mr Cousins’ two sons, William Cousins, 25, and Edward Cousins, 23, and pilot Gareth Morgan, 44, all died at the scene.
Police said the cause of the disaster remains under investigation amid efforts to recover the aircraft from an area of the Hawkesbury River, known as Jerusalem Bay.
It came months before Mr Cousins was due to step down from Compass, a FTSE 100 company, in March.
Its chairman, Paul Walsh, said: “We are deeply shocked and saddened by this terrible news. The thoughts of everyone at Compass are with Richard's family and friends, and we extend our deepest sympathies to them.
"It has been a great privilege to know Richard personally and to work with him for the last few years.
“Richard was known and respected for his great humanity and a no-nonsense style that transformed Compass into one of Britain's leading companies.”
Mr Cousins was ranked the 11th best-performing CEO in the world by the Harvard Business Review, having joined Compass in 2006 amid corruption allegations over contracts with the United Nations.
The company transformed its fortunes under his leadership, as did Tesco when Mr Cousins took over as independent director during an accounting scandal that saw its profits overstated by £250m in 2014.
He had started his career as a market researcher at Cadbury-Schweppes and later served as a non-executive director at firms including HBOS and P&O.
Mr Cousins, who discussed his passion for cricket in a 2005 interview with The Independent, had lived with his first wife, Caroline (née Thorpe), and their sons in the Chilterns until she died in 2015.
Their eldest son William was the head of press for Open Britain, a group “fighting against a hard and destructive Brexit”.
“Will was an extraordinary young man who was passionate about what he did, who took deep pride in his work and came into the office every day with enthusiasm, energy and determination,” said the group's chairman, Roland Rudd.
“All of us at Open Britain are devastated by the tragic loss of Will and his family.”
Mr Morgan was remembered as a “deeply respected” and experienced pilot, who had completed more than 9,000 flying time in seaplanes.
Aaron Shaw, the managing director of Sydney Seaplanes, said he had worked for the firm initially between 2011 and 2014 before moving to fly in the Maldives, and returning in May.
“He was an extremely experienced pilot,” he added, saying Mr Morgan had flown his own family to Palm Beach shortly before Christmas.
“On a personal level he was deeply respected and liked by me and all of the team, as a man and as a pilot. We are devastated by his loss.”
Mr Shaw said he was shocked at what he called a “tragic accident”, which caused the firm to suspend all operations until further notice.
Passing his condolences to the Bowden, Cousins and Morgan families, he added: “We do not yet know the cause of the accident and we are dedicating our full resources in assisting the NSW Police, Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), Civil Aviation Safety Authority and other relevant authorities to understand the cause.”
Mr Shaw said Sydney Seaplanes had conducted thousands of flights with a previously “unblemished” safety record since being founded in 2005, seeing it fly famous passengers including Ed Sheeran and Pippa Middleton.
“The safety of our passengers and staff is our absolute primary and highest priority,” he added. “All of our aircraft are professionally maintained to the manufacturer’s specifications and our seaplane pilots are some of the most experienced in the world.”
The DHC-2 Beaver seaplane came down off Jerusalem Bay near Cowan, 25 miles north of Sydney centre, at about 3.10pm (4.10am GMT) on Sunday.
Around a dozen recreational boats were in the area at the time and some are believed to have sailed to the crash site in attempts to help, with police appealing for witnesses to come forward.
Detective Superintendent Mark Hutchings, head of the New South Wales marine area command, told a press conference the crash “can only be described as a tragic accident”.
“The circumstances of how the plane acme to crash is currently under investigation,” he added.
“These people had come over on holiday to visit Australia, they were in one of the most beautiful parts of the world and for this to happen at a place like that is nothing more than just tragic.”
The ATSB has sent investigators from Canberra, who are working on how to salvage the plane from the riverbed.
Officials said the single-engine aircraft sunk quickly after hitting the water, where the victim’s bodies were recovered by divers on Sunday evening.
“The sequence of events leading up to the accident are not yet understood, however following the impact with the water, the aircraft is reported to have sunk rapidly,” the ATSB said.
