A 69-year-old seaplane crashed during an aerial display above the city of Perth, in front of thousand onlookers killing the pilot and his passenger.
Owner and pilot Peter Anthony Lynch, 52, and his Indonesian partner Endah Cakrawati, 30, were alone in the 1948 Grumman G-73 Mallard flying boat when it crashed into the Swan River on Thursday to the horror of up to 60,000 witnesses who were gathering to watch an annual fireworks display.
When the plane crashed many onlookers thought it was performing a stunt as part of the air show.
Perth Mayor Lisa Scaffidi said Lynch had remodelled the twin-engine plane and had flown it across the United States then across the Pacific Ocean to Australia.