West Coast Air Crash
West Coast Air Crash
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Very lucky bunch of pax. Great reactions from the Seabus Crews. No one has mentioned which engine caught fire, raising the question of whether the turn was into the dead engine.
Engine on fire, float plane plunges into Burrard Inlet.
SeaBus to the rescue as passengers, crew clamber on to wing -- and no one's hurt.
-Greg Middleton The Province-
They'd just taken off from Vancouver harbour for what should have been a routine flight to Victoria when passengers on the Twin Otter saw something terrifying: An engine had
burst into flames.
"Oh my god, we're going to hit the water!" passengers on the 3 p.m. West Coast Air flight screamed as the plane began to bank steeply to the right. Seconds later, they plunged into busy Burrard Inlet --
but what could have been a disaster was averted when all 15 passengers and two crew managed to scramble out and were rescued within minutes by two SeaBus ferries. In the end, no one was injured -- but they certainly had a scare. Passenger Bruce Parisian said they were about a minute into the flight and little more than a dozen
metres above the water when he felt a bump and looked out of the window to see the engine on fire. "There was a flash and
flames and I tried to yell to the pilot that we were on fire, but I guess he knew that already," said Parisian,executive director of the Victoria Native Friendship Center. He said the 18-passenger sea plane veered to the right, tilted to one side and crashed into the water, tearing off one wing and smashing a pontoon. "It went in with a hell of a splash," said Province National Affairs columnist Jim McNulty, who saw the crash through the office window. Under directions from the crew, Parisian opened the door on the other side and helped fellow passengers clamber on to the wing, donning life-jackets as they went. "Some people were pretty panicky, pretty shook up," said Parisian, who
escaped with only a nick on the knuckle. "But the crew were great." He said some were first worried that the plane was going to sink with them in it and then that it might go down while they were standing on it, but no one even got more than wet feet. As the 15 passengers, pilot and co-pilot emerged from the plane, the SeaBus rescue was already under way -- first the ferry from the
Vancouver side and then the ferry from North Vancouver. Gord McIntosh, who was on his way to catch a later West Coast Air flight to Victoria, was one of the SeaBus passengers who volunteered to help with the rescue.
They loaded the passengers into an inflatable raft launched from the SeaBus and then helped them aboard a Port of Vancouver harbour patrol boat. They were all OK, just a little shaken up," McIntosh said. Within a few minutes, the passengers were on shore, many using cell phones to alert relatives that they'd been in a crash but were all right.
"I called the wife right away to say that if she saw anything on the news that my fight had crashed, that I was okay," Parisian said. "I figure I am one of the luckiest men alive today. I think I should buy a lottery ticket."
Engine on fire, float plane plunges into Burrard Inlet.
SeaBus to the rescue as passengers, crew clamber on to wing -- and no one's hurt.
-Greg Middleton The Province-
They'd just taken off from Vancouver harbour for what should have been a routine flight to Victoria when passengers on the Twin Otter saw something terrifying: An engine had
burst into flames.
"Oh my god, we're going to hit the water!" passengers on the 3 p.m. West Coast Air flight screamed as the plane began to bank steeply to the right. Seconds later, they plunged into busy Burrard Inlet --
but what could have been a disaster was averted when all 15 passengers and two crew managed to scramble out and were rescued within minutes by two SeaBus ferries. In the end, no one was injured -- but they certainly had a scare. Passenger Bruce Parisian said they were about a minute into the flight and little more than a dozen
metres above the water when he felt a bump and looked out of the window to see the engine on fire. "There was a flash and
flames and I tried to yell to the pilot that we were on fire, but I guess he knew that already," said Parisian,executive director of the Victoria Native Friendship Center. He said the 18-passenger sea plane veered to the right, tilted to one side and crashed into the water, tearing off one wing and smashing a pontoon. "It went in with a hell of a splash," said Province National Affairs columnist Jim McNulty, who saw the crash through the office window. Under directions from the crew, Parisian opened the door on the other side and helped fellow passengers clamber on to the wing, donning life-jackets as they went. "Some people were pretty panicky, pretty shook up," said Parisian, who
escaped with only a nick on the knuckle. "But the crew were great." He said some were first worried that the plane was going to sink with them in it and then that it might go down while they were standing on it, but no one even got more than wet feet. As the 15 passengers, pilot and co-pilot emerged from the plane, the SeaBus rescue was already under way -- first the ferry from the
Vancouver side and then the ferry from North Vancouver. Gord McIntosh, who was on his way to catch a later West Coast Air flight to Victoria, was one of the SeaBus passengers who volunteered to help with the rescue.
They loaded the passengers into an inflatable raft launched from the SeaBus and then helped them aboard a Port of Vancouver harbour patrol boat. They were all OK, just a little shaken up," McIntosh said. Within a few minutes, the passengers were on shore, many using cell phones to alert relatives that they'd been in a crash but were all right.
"I called the wife right away to say that if she saw anything on the news that my fight had crashed, that I was okay," Parisian said. "I figure I am one of the luckiest men alive today. I think I should buy a lottery ticket."
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Heh there RT ... I was just over on "Rumours and News" checking out the latest speculation on the SQ006 crash and there is some ****** over there using your handle!! He spells it with 3 L's as in "RolllingThunder". You may want somebody to disable it before he causes you some grief.
By the way, I see your YVR Canucks are having a good season ... beat the Av's last night.
Anyway, cheers from the Desert ...
Luke
By the way, I see your YVR Canucks are having a good season ... beat the Av's last night.
Anyway, cheers from the Desert ...
Luke
