Local: I drank with Swan Bay’s victims

Hamish Heard
Three crack soldiers killed when their car plunged into Swan Bay were drinking merrily with locals minutes before meeting their watery deaths.
A regular at Queenscliff’s Esplanade Hotel, who asked not to be identified, said it was “unlikely” the soldiers were under .05 when they left the pub at 1am on Monday.
“They wouldn’t have been sober, I’d definitely put it that way,” the source said.
The dead soldiers were Sergeant Craig Linacre and Corporal Dave O’Neil, both married with children, and Corporal Michael McAvoy, an engaged father of one.
The SAS troops had all served in at least one foreign conflict and were completing counterterrorism training at Swan Bay.
The Queenscliff local said the soldiers were sitting at a table in a corner of the hotel talking to one of his female friends when he approached the group early Monday morning.
“They were talking to the girl I know and I went over to see what was going on,” the source said.
“They all seemed like really good blokes. They were just sitting back at the table drinking.”
The man said other locals who were drinking at the pub the same night were shocked to later learn members of the group had died in the horrific Swan Bay crash.
“Just thinking that I’d been speaking to them barely an hour before they died was a bit unsettling,” he said.
Sgt Linacre’s wife, Taryn, and Cpl McAvoy’s finace, Vanessa Calvert, issued public statements on Wednesday describing the men as loving fathers who loved serving their country.
Media reports said the men were drinking potent Jager bomb cocktails before driving off in their rented Falcon XR6 sedan.
Other locals reported seeing them “hooning” through the streets of Queenscliff between leaving the pub and crashing at 1.30am.
A group of soldiers following the doomed car unsuccessfully tried to rescue the men
Police did not expect to release the results of their investigations into the crash for several months.