Ian Jacques/Editor
A story of unthinkable tragedy and remarkable survival played out on the steep terrain of Thormanby Island last Sunday.
A Pacific Coastal Airlines flight, carrying seven passengers, went down after taking off from Vancouver International Airport.
The men were bound for East Toba Valley, north of Powell River, where they were working on the Plutonic Power run-of-river hydroelectric project, employed by Peter Kiewit Sons and Finning. Seven people were killed, including the pilot, when the twin-engined Grumman Goose slammed into a hill on South Thormanby Island. Debris was scattered across hundreds of metres. Following the crash, the aircraft's fuel tanks exploded, and two fires destroyed much of the plane.
Tom Wilson, a 35-year-old project manager from Edmonton, was the lone survivor. He later told rescue crews he was sleeping, and when the plane hit the ground, he was knocked out. When he awoke, he had no trouble getting out of the plane as it was in pieces. As soon as he got clear there was an explosion, but Wilson managed to get away from the plane just in time and made his way for more than three hours through rough terrain to the beach area.
Halfmoon Bay Coast Guard personnel, one of several agencies dispatched to the crash scene shortly after 1 p.m, spotted Wilson.
"The crew of five on board the Ken Moore were tasked to do a shoreline search of the area around Lenberg Point on the southeast end of Thormanby Island," said Coast Guard media liaison Drew McKee. "Almost immediately after initiating the search, one of our members spotted a fellow coming out of the bush above the rocks. He was waving and had a yellow sheet of some material loosely wrapped around his upper body and he was shirtless. He appeared injured and appeared to be moving with difficulty."
McKee said when the Coast Guard members were able to get the man into the rescue vessel, they could better assess his injuries. "He was burned on the face, hands and chest and was bleeding from his hands and lower torso," McKee said. "The crew wrapped him in a blanket and protective gear and the boat made good speed to Halfmoon Bay where he was taken to hospital by ambulance. It's remarkable that he survived."
Wilson's brother Michael spoke to the media from Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) on Tuesday to provide an update on Tom's condition.Michael said he was in good spirits and doing fine, but was mourning the loss of his friends and co-workers. "Emotionally he's up and down, but he's doing good," Michael said.
VGH trauma surgeon Dr. John Reid said in his experience he's never seen anything like this, describing Tom's survival as "inexplicable." Reid said Wilson could be released from hospital in a few days and should be fully recovered within a few weeks.
Late Tuesday evening, Peter Kiewit Sons released the names of the victims. They are Kyle Adams, 29, a maintenance engineer from Edmonton; Jerry Burns, 42, a equipment operator from Garibaldi Highlands in Squamish; Ajay Cariappa, 34, a project engineer from St. Albert, Alta.; Waldemar Klemens, 24, an engineer from Burnaby; and Matt Sawchenko, 26, an equipment operator from North Vancouver. Also killed was Tom Orgar, 29, from Surrey, who worked for Finning, and the pilot, Peter McLeod, 52.
Sunshine Coast Search and Rescue (SAR), RCMP and rescue workers from Comox all converged on the crash site on Sunday afternoon to look for survivors. Seventeen SAR members, including medical specialists, technical rope rescue technicians and communications experts, made their way to the island, but it soon became clear there were no further survivors at the crash site. Due to poor visibility and approaching darkness, all rescue personnel returned to Sechelt while RCMP with their response vessel Lindsay anchored just off the island to secure the area.Early Monday morning, four RCMP members and six SAR members made their way to the island trying to access the crash site.
"Two teams were formed to attempt to gain access to the rugged territory that surrounds the plane crash site," said Cpl. Peter Thiessen. "The teams approached from two different angles, one from Buccaneer Bay and the other from Landberg Point, which is the route that Mr. Wilson travelled Sunday along the river bed."
Thiessen said the Buccaneer Bay team was able to get within 500 metres of the site in their all-terrain vehicle and then hiked the rest of the way on foot.
Later in the morning, officials from the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) made their way to the site to begin their investigation.
TSB spokesperson Bill Yearwood spoke of the accident site on Monday afternoon.
"What we see is consistent of the aircraft climbing at high speed when it made contact with the trees, and it's evident it broke apart right on impact," said Yearwood. "It is very early in the investigation, and we have a lot to do before we can come to any conclusions."
The weather was not ideal at the time of the crash on Sunday morning and investigators will be looking at why the pilot was flying at a low altitude, whether his GPS was working properly and whether there were mechanical problems with the plane.
"I can't say why the pilot was flying at that altitude," said Yearwood. "We do know the aircraft was operating at a low level from Vancouver departure, and we have radar up to about 18 nautical miles before the accident site. At this stage the contact of the trees would indicate the aircraft was in a climb, and that is usually consistent with power, and we have damage that is consistent with that."
On Tuesday morning, the B.C. Coroner's Service concluded its investigation, and with the help of a helicopter removed the seven victims from the hillside Tuesday afternoon. The remains were flown to Vancouver where autopsies will be conducted. Coroner's Service spokesman Jeff Dolan said they will work as quickly as possible to release the bodies to their families.
Pieces of the plane were also taken to TSB headquarters in Richmond, where Yearwood and his team will begin the painstaking task of finding out what happened.
Yearwood said it could be months before anything is known. "It is one of our more difficult investigations. Any time there is fire and loss of evidence it makes things more difficult," he said.
Peter Kiewit Sons, Plutonic Power and Pacific Coastal all expressed shock and sadness at the loss.
Spencer Smith, Pacific Coastal vice president, said his thoughts and prayers are with the family members, colleagues, employees of Plutonic and Kiewit and its own staff.
"It's impossible to comprehend right now," he said. "Having to deal with something like this so recently, to have to go through this again, it's almost numbing."
In August, five people were killed on a Pacific Coastal flight near Port Hardy - also in a Grumman Goose. The TSB has yet to release its findings on that crash.
As a result of the latest accident, Pacific Coastal voluntarily shut down its float plane operations on Sunday. Service resumed on Wednesday afternoon.
"That's not done by any direction of the safety board, that's done simply as a result of the fact that the crew involved in operating these airplanes are extremely traumatized," Smith said. "We don't want to be putting them back in an airplane until we've had an opportunity to debrief with them and get a comfort level that they're in the right frame of mind to get back into the airplane."
Pacific Coastal had operated six Grumman Goose planes and also has three Beaver float planes. Smith said the company has every confidence in its four remaining Grumman Goose aircraft. "We're not doubting the equipment, by any stretch," he said.
The plane was supposed to stop in Powell River, pick up one person and continue on to Toba, Smith said. People are leaning towards the weather as a factor in the crash, he added.
"I'm not going to say it was and I'm not going to say it wasn't. Certainly the weather wasn't great, but it was good enough for us to operate legally under the guidelines set out by Transport Canada, and we would not have been released from Vancouver airspace if that was not the case. I really can't say what took place out there. I wish I could," he said.
Kent Grisham, spokesman for Peter Kiewit Sons, said the tragedy has struck Kiewit very deeply.
"Our only focus now is on the family, friends and co-workers of those who have been lost," Grisham said during a news conference in Sechelt on Monday. "We have suspended most of our operations throughout B.C. and all the operations at the Plutonic Toba site. Over the course of our 125-year history in North America, of course we have suffered other losses, each one equally impacting on the company. In terms of this, and the number of people lost in one particular incident, this would be the largest we've had."
Donald McInnes, vice-chair and CEO of Plutonic, said all operations at the Toba site have been suspended until further notice.
"Plutonic Power expresses its deepest sympathy to the families of those lost," said McInnes. "We are grateful for all the messages of support and condolences from friends and colleagues. We find strength in your support, and we will rebuild from this horrible loss with the benefit of time as a healer."
- With files from Laura Walz/Powell River Peak
