Six years ago on Nov. 16, 2008, Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary, station 12, Halfmoon Bay, was called out to do a shoreline search of the south eastern side of South Thormanby Island.
The tasking was assigned by the joint rescue coordination centre and was the result of a phone call by an island resident who had heard what sounded to him like a plane crashing somewhere close on the island.
The station’s rescue boat, the Ken Moore, was assigned to join a Coast Guard hovercraft, Canadian Forces search and rescue aircraft, and the Sunshine Coast ground search and rescue (SAR) team in locating the crash site and attempting rescue of any survivors.
As luck would have it, the Ken Moore happened to round the corner of Lemberg Point at just the right time and one of the crew on board spotted what turned out to be the only survivor of the crash of a Grumman Goose, stumbling out of the bush just above the shoreline.
The rescue vessel made its way to the beach where the crew was able to assist the survivor, Tom Wilson, aboard and transport him to the float at Halfmoon Bay wharf, where he was transferred to a waiting ambulance for conveyance to St. Mary’s Hospital for treatment of his burns.
On Saturday, Nov. 15, 2014, the Ken Moore made a return trip to Thormanby Island.
Wilson, who now lives in Alberta, in correspondence with Station 12, said he wished to meet the crew that had taken him off the island and wanted to return to the crash site and erect a commemorative cross in memory of the men who did not survive.
Arrangements were put in place and Wilson, his wife Lasha and friend Stephen Quenselle met the RCMSAR crew at their location in Secret Cove where they were joined by two members of the Sunshine Coast ground SAR team organized to assist the journey to the crash site. The party hiked up to the crash site where a quiet, moving time was observed. The cross, engraved with the names of the dead, was erected and the party headed southeast, following the route of Wilson’s escape from the crash in 2008.
The Ken Moore was waiting at the same beach where Wilson had been picked up in 2008 and the party was transported to the Halfmoon Bay wharf. Everything was as Wilson remembered it.
The Ken Moore returned to base in Secret Cove and then Wilson’s party and the crew went to an enjoyable restaurant dinner in Sechelt. It had turned out to be a fulfilling day for all participants.
The original rescue crew on duty that day in November, 2008, were Bob McKee (then station leader), Ron Dinsdale, George Lyske, Drew McKee and coxswain Alan Skelley. They were joined this past week by coxswain Peter Forster and by Alec Tebbutt and Richard Till from SAR.
