Crash at Grande Prarie jan 18

[sarcee]

Does anyone know anything about an experimental aircraft landing at CYQU, the nose gear collapsing and the plane running into a snowbank overturning and the occupant(s) being left there in the wreckage for 15 minutes or more??

I heard the rescue services from the town were 15 minutes arriving and no-one on the airport there to help? Makes flying here real safe doesn't it?

[fernytickles]

In what way is that any worse than driving off the road into a snowbank, being trapped and not being found for as long, if not longer? Wherever you are in the world.

[604guy]

Does anyone know anything about an experimental aircraft landing at CYQU, the nose gear collapsing and the plane running into a snowbank overturning and the occupant(s) being left there in the wreckage for 15 minutes or more??
I heard the rescue services from the town were 15 minutes arriving and no-one on the airport there to help? Makes flying here real safe doesn't it?
My goodness, the vast majority of airports don't have on-site or continuous on-site crash/fire/rescue folks. If you expect that service you had better stick to the major airports.

[rotornut]

Home-built airplane veers off runway, flips over

By KEVIN CRUSH

Herald-Tribune staff

A pilot escaped serious injury Thursday afternoon after flipping his plane during takeoff at the Grande Prairie Regional Airport.


"He walked out on his own power and as far as I understand he's fine," said Doug Mark, airport manager of operations and terminal services.


Around 4:45 p.m., city firefighters and emergency services were called to the airport after a single-engine, home-built plane flipped upside-down off the main runway.


"As I understand it, the aircraft was on a takeoff roll. We're not sure what happened. Something went wrong on that takeoff and he veered off the runway into the snow off the side of the runway," said Mark.


Some passengers in the airport said they had heard it hit a snowbank during takeoff before it flipped over.


But Mark said he wasn't sure if snow was a factor on the crash - he noted there is deep snow in fields around the airport but the runways are kept clear.


Firefighters had to shovel snow to be able to free the lone occupant in the plane, which was flipped on its roof.


The pilot, whose identity has not been released, was able to get out of the plane once the snow was clear and walked away with only a couple of scratches.


The airport's main runway was shut down but flights carried on normally off of the secondary runway.


Transport Canada will conduct an investigation into the crash.

http://www.dailyheraldtribune.com/z_homebuiltairplane0119.lasso

[Pilot DAR]

I heard the rescue services from the town were 15 minutes arriving and no-one on the airport there to help? Makes flying here real safe doesn't it?

Hey sarcee,

If the airport management imposed a CFR (crash fire rescue) landing fee, as some other Canadian airports have done, would you be more happy about safety at the airport? Say a few hundred dollars per landing, to cover the cost of making the service available to the few operations each day, and few per year who might actually need it?

I imagine that the unfortunate pilot is quite grateful that his mishap occurred on the airport, and was noticed and attended at all!

I own my own aerodrome, and live in fear of a pilot crashing here, and expecting CFR service for free. I guess that it's lucky that I'm also a 15 year volunteer firefighter here.

By the way, nobody ever offers to pay the cost I incur when I fly my plane locally to support search and rescue - even the four people I have found!

Perhaps you would consider directing your energy to contributing to the community instead of finding fault with it...

Pilot DAR