Tributes have been paid to a former Emirates Airline captain and his wife who died in a plane crash near Brisbane, Australia.
Australian grandparents David and Jan Maddern, both former Dubai residents, were killed when their light aircraft collided with another plane shortly after taking off from Caboolture Airfield north of Brisbane at 10.30am on Friday, July 28.
The Jabiru Ultra J430 plane built by Mr Maddern came into contact with a Piper Pawnee light aircraft as it came into land at the aerodrome, a report from crash investigators at The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said.
The couple, both in their mid-60s, died at the scene.
Following their return to Australia they lived in Brisbane, living life to the full
Patrick Cahill
The pilot of the second aircraft escaped unharmed and is assisting investigators with the inquiry.
The ATSB is examining video footage and conducting witness interviews to establish the cause of the crash.
Mr Maddern, a career pilot, began flying in Northern Australia and built up his commercial flying hours with Trans Australian Airlines, one of the country’s first domestic carriers, later taken over by Qantas in 1994.
He left Australia following the 1989 pilots' dispute in which more than 1,500 walked out over pay demands and working hours.
Like many others who left Australia after the protest, Mr Maddern took up flying overseas, joining airlines in Colombia and Turkey to pilot Boeing 737s.
In 1991, Mr Maddern joined Emirates in Dubai as a first officer flying Airbus planes, becoming captain two years later.
Patrick Cahill, a close family friend, met Mr Maddern in 1993 after joining Emirates.
“We became close mates through our love of sailing,” Mr Cahill told The National.
“Dave was a very respected captain over his career and he became a training captain and examiner on the Airbus fleet that included the A310, A330, A340 and A380.
“He retired from Emirates in 2017 and went back to Brisbane.
“Dave was a founding member of the Emirates Airline Sailing Club and I have many happy memories of racing with him on the Dubai to Muscat races and winning the World Airline Sailing Championship in the British Virgin Islands.
“We also competed together as an Emirates-sponsored crew in the 1999 Sydney to Hobart yacht race.”
Keen sailor
During his time in Dubai, Mr Maddern owned an 8.5-metre Oyster sailing yacht called Time Out, that was kept at Dubai Offshore Sailing Club.
He also owned one of only a small number of vintage MGB Roadster cars in Dubai at the time.
Mrs Maddern was a yoga instructor in Dubai and published several fitness and well-being books.
Tributes have been paid to the couple on social media and on Dubai community message boards.
“Jan was a member of the Dubai Writers' Club, studied Italian and went on many trips to Italy to enhance her language skills,” said Mr Cahill.
“We had many great holidays with them chartering yachts in the Mediterranean throughout our time in Dubai.
“Following their return to Australia they lived in Brisbane, living life to the full.
“Dave built the Jabiru Ultra light aircraft and based it out of Caboolture aerodrome, which is just north of Brisbane.
“He and Jan would fly almost every second weekend, with longer trips in the summer months to Western Queensland and many spots on the east coast of Australia.”
The couple were dog lovers and kept Labradors, while Mrs Maddern was a volunteer and supporter of Guide Dogs Australia.
A memorial service is to be held at the Hugh Courtney Oval in Brisbane on Friday, August 11 at noon local time.
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
Tips for used car buyers
- Choose cars with GCC specifications
- Get a service history for cars less than five years old
- Don’t go cheap on the inspection
- Check for oil leaks
- Do a Google search on the standard problems for your car model
- Do your due diligence. Get a transfer of ownership done at an official RTA centre
- Check the vehicle’s condition. You don’t want to buy a car that’s a good deal but ends up costing you Dh10,000 in repairs every month
- Validate warranty and service contracts with the relevant agency and and make sure they are valid when ownership is transferred
- If you are planning to sell the car soon, buy one with a good resale value. The two most popular cars in the UAE are black or white in colour and other colours are harder to sell
Tarek Kabrit, chief executive of Seez, and Imad Hammad, chief executive and co-founder of CarSwitch.com
The lowdown
Badla
Rating: 2.5/5
Produced by: Red Chillies, Azure Entertainment
Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Amrita Singh, Tony Luke
Museum of the Future in numbers
- 78 metres is the height of the museum
- 30,000 square metres is its total area
- 17,000 square metres is the length of the stainless steel facade
- 14 kilometres is the length of LED lights used on the facade
- 1,024 individual pieces make up the exterior
- 7 floors in all, with one for administrative offices
- 2,400 diagonally intersecting steel members frame the torus shape
- 100 species of trees and plants dot the gardens
- Dh145 is the price of a ticket
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
