The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) has finished its fieldwork following a fatal plane crash in Sechelt July 5, but it could still be some time before the TSB determines if a full-scale investigation is called for.
“[TSB investigators] conducted interviews, took pictures and found out as much as possible and now, using what they have, they will determine the next steps,” said TSB spokesman Alex Fournier.
“It could be very simple – a Class 5, which means that we keep the data and information to support other investigations all the way to a bigger investigation if they found something more serious.”
The single-engine Piper Cherokee went down in a ravine about a half-kilometre from the northwest end of the Sechelt Airport runway around 3 p.m. last Thursday.
The male pilot died at the scene. A second man, a teenaged girl and a three-year-old boy managed to get out of the plane and walked along the Suncoaster Trail, emerging from the bush near the intersection of Selma Park Road and Stamford Place.
Residents offered first aid and called 911. The trio suffered only scrapes and bruises, although witnesses said they appeared to be in severe shock.
RCMP, firefighters and Sunshine Coast Search and Rescue volunteers rushed to the scene, but Sechelt assistant fire chief Dwight Davison told Coast Reporter about two hours after the crash that, “The fourth occupant is still in the plane and at this time we are basically transitioning from a rescue to a recovery mode.”
The only access to the plane had been through low-angle rope rescue and crews had to work to stabilize the aircraft, which was caught up in trees and sitting precariously on a bank with the portside wing pointed down.
The pilot’s body was recovered from the wreckage late Thursday evening.
RCMP said the four people on the plane were members of the same family and the plane had just taken off for a sightseeing flight when it appeared to have lost power.
The BC Coroners Service said it would not be releasing the pilot’s name.
Acting RCMP detachment commander, Sgt. Mike Hacker, said last Friday that the family has ties to the Sunshine Coast and the pilot was known in the local aviation community.
“It’s affecting that segment of the community particularly hard,” Hacker said, offering condolences to the family and the pilot’s colleagues.
As of Monday the trails in the area, which include part of the route for the BC Bike Race, had been reopened.
Fournier said the TSB had released the scene, allowing for removal of the wreckage.
