7 Dead in Pacific Coastal Airlines Crash
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Seven confirmed dead in B.C. plane crash
Seven confirmed dead in B.C. plane crash
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The Canadian Press
November 16, 2008 at 8:28 PM EST
VANCOUVER — One man walked out alive while seven others perished Sunday in a plane crash on a remote island off British Columbia's south coast.
Lieutenant Marguerite Dodds-Lepinski, with the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria, confirmed the seven deaths.
“It's tragic, it's just tragic the whole thing,” Lieut. Dodds-Lepinski said.
“The great news is, some guy, one of the survivors, walked out and is alive and the Canadian Coast Guard found him on the beach,” she said.
Pacific Coastal Airlines vice-president Spencer Smith said the survivor was a passenger.
Smith said the situation is very hard for the company.
“I don't know what to tell you,” he said. “There's nothing good about this. It wouldn't take very many people to figure what it feels like, if they have any sense of empathy.”
He said the pilot, who was among the dead, was quite experienced.
Mr. Smith said Pacific Coastal would be alerting the families of those killed in the crash.
Coast Guard and Search and Rescue crews started scouring the area of Thormanby Island, off B.C.'s Sunshine Coast north of Vancouver, after a resident reported hearing an aircraft in distress Sunday morning.
Bill Holtz, one of the few residents who live on Thormanby Island, said he could hear the search crews.
“I hear a loud crash or a loud noise and we've heard a lot of search and rescue aircraft flying around for the last three hours,” he said in a telephone interview.
Not long after the report of a potential crash, the rescue centre received a call from an official with Pacific Coastal Airlines, reporting that one of its planes was missing.
The Grumman Goose airplane was on a flight out of Vancouver International Airport's south terminal.
RCMP were heading to the scene Sunday night by all-terrain vehicle.
Mr. Smith said the company will co-operate fully with investigators from the Transportation Safety Board, as well as the BC Coroners Service and the RCMP.
B.C. has seen a spate of fatal plane crashes this year.
Two people were killed while two others survived the crash of a helicopter in northwest B.C. in early August.
The chartered Hughes MD-500D helicopter, owned by Prism Helicopters, plunged upside down into the Kitsault River near Alice Arm, about 150 kilometres northeast of Prince Rupert.
Two search and rescue technicians from a Canadian Forces Buffalo aircraft parachuted into the site and found two of the helicopter's four occupants dead.
Earlier that week, another Pacific Coastal Airlines' Grumman Goose crashed on Vancouver Island, killing five people.
The wreckage was in dense bush and the two survivors were found quickly only because one of them clambered up a mountainside to a spot he could get cellphone reception.
He sent text messages to searchers who were searching to locate them
globeandmail.com: Seven killed in B.C. plane crash
November 16, 2008 at 8:28 PM EST
VANCOUVER — One man walked out alive while seven others perished Sunday in a plane crash on a remote island off British Columbia's south coast.
Lieutenant Marguerite Dodds-Lepinski, with the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria, confirmed the seven deaths.
“It's tragic, it's just tragic the whole thing,” Lieut. Dodds-Lepinski said.
“The great news is, some guy, one of the survivors, walked out and is alive and the Canadian Coast Guard found him on the beach,” she said.
Pacific Coastal Airlines vice-president Spencer Smith said the survivor was a passenger.
Smith said the situation is very hard for the company.
“I don't know what to tell you,” he said. “There's nothing good about this. It wouldn't take very many people to figure what it feels like, if they have any sense of empathy.”
He said the pilot, who was among the dead, was quite experienced.
Mr. Smith said Pacific Coastal would be alerting the families of those killed in the crash.
Coast Guard and Search and Rescue crews started scouring the area of Thormanby Island, off B.C.'s Sunshine Coast north of Vancouver, after a resident reported hearing an aircraft in distress Sunday morning.
Bill Holtz, one of the few residents who live on Thormanby Island, said he could hear the search crews.
“I hear a loud crash or a loud noise and we've heard a lot of search and rescue aircraft flying around for the last three hours,” he said in a telephone interview.
Not long after the report of a potential crash, the rescue centre received a call from an official with Pacific Coastal Airlines, reporting that one of its planes was missing.
The Grumman Goose airplane was on a flight out of Vancouver International Airport's south terminal.
RCMP were heading to the scene Sunday night by all-terrain vehicle.
Mr. Smith said the company will co-operate fully with investigators from the Transportation Safety Board, as well as the BC Coroners Service and the RCMP.
B.C. has seen a spate of fatal plane crashes this year.
Two people were killed while two others survived the crash of a helicopter in northwest B.C. in early August.
The chartered Hughes MD-500D helicopter, owned by Prism Helicopters, plunged upside down into the Kitsault River near Alice Arm, about 150 kilometres northeast of Prince Rupert.
Two search and rescue technicians from a Canadian Forces Buffalo aircraft parachuted into the site and found two of the helicopter's four occupants dead.
Earlier that week, another Pacific Coastal Airlines' Grumman Goose crashed on Vancouver Island, killing five people.
The wreckage was in dense bush and the two survivors were found quickly only because one of them clambered up a mountainside to a spot he could get cellphone reception.
He sent text messages to searchers who were searching to locate them
globeandmail.com: Seven killed in B.C. plane crash
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The names of the passengers and pilot have been released.
Anyone who was involved with seaplanes in the Whitsundays late 80s/early 90s may want to have a look here:
Lone survivor of B.C. plane crash on 'emotional roller-coaster'
Vale to all.
Anyone who was involved with seaplanes in the Whitsundays late 80s/early 90s may want to have a look here:
Lone survivor of B.C. plane crash on 'emotional roller-coaster'
Vale to all.
