Carolyn Cross looked at the pilot’s shaking hands and was certain everyone on board the little twin-engined aircraft was going to die.
Moments earlier, pilot Luc Fortin told the group of business executives en route to Kelowna that the plane had a small oil leak in the left engine and he was returning to Vancouver International Airport. Most of the passengers just sighed in exasperation.
But Cross, who runs a Vancouver biomedical company, pays attention to small details. She watched the pilot and figured the 13-seat aircraft was in its death throes.
“I looked at his hands and they were shaking, trembling, and at that moment I knew we were going to die.”
She started typing out a farewell letter to her children.
“I calmly take out my iPhone and I start composing letters to my children. And it’s an interesting thing that when you are very certain that you are going to die, you are in a moment of peace,” she said Friday from her bed in Vancouver General Hospital trauma unit.Luc Fortin, 44, was a veteran pilot. His record of 14,000 hours of flying had taken him around the world, to Canada’s north, Antarctica and the Maldives.
Thursday’s charter flight from Vancouver to Kelowna should have been a breeze.
But on this flight, something went wrong with the twin-engined Beechcraft King Air 100 aircraft that Fortin was flying for Northern Thunderbird Air, a company he joined in 2007. It might not have seemed too serious at first. But this would be the North Vancouver pilot’s last flight.
Flight 204 departed YVR at 3:41 p.m. The weather was partly cloudy, eight degrees, the winds from the west at 11 kilometres an hour.
Next to Fortin in the cockpit sat the first officer, 26-year-old Matt Robic, a relatively junior pilot who had joined the Prince George-based company last June and had 1,400 flying hours.
Behind them in the cabin were seven passengers headed to a business executive forum in the Okanagan Valley.
Fifteen minutes into the flight, while the plane was 4,600 metres above Golden Ears Provincial Park, Fortin and Robic noticed a potential problem — an oil indicator light.
At that time, it didn’t seem serious enough for them to request a full-on emergency landing, but they did inform air traffic controllers they were headed back to YVR. At that distance and altitude, YVR — not a smaller and closer regional airport — was a logical place to touch down, given its fire safety response and the fact that Northern Thunderbird Air has an office there, said Bill Yearwood, regional manager of the federal transportation safety board.What happened over the ensuing few minutes is the subject of an intensive ongoing investigation by board.
“That’s our challenge: to determine why what appeared to be a benign indicator problem turned into such a tragic event,” Yearwood said Friday.
“What we do know is that things went horribly wrong as the King Air approached the eastern end of the south runway.”
Yearwood said the plane was about 900 metres away with its landing gear down in a stable approach when it veered 90 degrees to the left and crashed into Russ Baker Way.
The plane hit a lamppost and a car — and exploded in flames — at 4:12 p.m.
“It was fortunate that it was clear enough for them to come to a stop before colliding with too many objects or people,” Yearwood said, with understatement. Cross said her fellow passengers seemed oblivious to the danger.
“The chap next to me was talking about his cottage. He didn’t understand, but I did. I want to say this, and I am making a point about the pilots because I really believe they contributed to our success,” said Cross, chairman and CEO of Ondine Biomedical.
At VGH, where she is in the burns, plastics and trauma unit with multiple fractures, she said it was clear the pilots knew the aircraft was in serious trouble.She said the pilots aimed the nose up, she assumed to gather enough altitude to coast back to the airport.
“They went very high up ... The pilots were taking us much higher than normal and I understand that is because they were going to glide us in. I understood that halfway down. They were doing such a good job, they got so close. I mean, 900 metres away.”
On the final approach to the airport, she said the pilots “shot each other a look.”
“I knew that they were not going to make it despite a gallant effort,” she said.
In a moment of clarity, she looked down at her cellphone to see if there was reception.
“I wanted to make sure my kids would get my letter and it did go, so I was at peace,” she said.
“Suddenly, the pilots were yanking very hard to the left in a very awkward way and I went from looking at the runway to looking at the highway and we were going down into it and that’s when the rest of the [passengers] knew. We crashed and I immediately looked outside because I was at a door window and it was full of flames outside.”When Fortin alerted YVR that he was coming back, air traffic controllers asked him if he wanted to declare an emergency standby, which would have dispatched fire engines to the end of the runway.
He said no and opted for a routine standby, meaning crews in the fire hall at the centre of YVR’s three runways simply stood by.
Staff in the tower watched in horror as the plane banked sharply and crashed on Russ Baker Way, just on the far side of the fence at the end of the runway.
They hit the “crash” button, and within seconds three fire trucks barrelled down the runway apron.
“We didn’t know which side of the fence the crash was on, so two of the trucks went right to the end of the runway,” said Don Ehrenholz, YVR’s vice-president of operations and engineering.
The other fire truck used its reinforced bumper to crash through a runway gate.
But even before any of the professional emergency crews could get to the stricken aircraft, it was ordinary heroes, commuters in the immediate vicinity, who stopped their cars and rushed in where angels might fear to tread.Canada Post employee Steve Baran was on his way to make a letterbox pickup, driving parallel to Russ Baker Way, when he first heard it.
“I heard this ‘ka-shing’ and I looked up and went, ‘Whoa,’” said the 53-year-old father of two.
Baran watched the plane crash and ignite around 50 metres away.
“At first, it didn’t make sense,” he said. “I remember years ago, I saw a pickup hit a car, and it made that same noise, this grinding of metal.”
Baran pulled over and went over to the plane. Looking around, he saw a number of others running toward the wreckage as well.
In what felt like seconds, they formed a line leading up to the plane’s door and began helping passengers get out. Baran said one or two people in front of him pulled people out of the plane before he led them a safe distance away.
“Then somebody mentioned there should be seven people, and we did a count. At first we thought there were six, but there were seven. Then I looked around and thought, ‘Where’s the white shirt with the tie and the bars? I haven’t seen a pilot. And there has to be a co-pilot; they always go in twos.’”
“We turned around and said ‘the pilots,’ but we couldn’t go back in. There was just too much heat. A guy said, ‘No, you can’t. That’s it. Go, go, go.’”Chris Yuen, 21, was biking home from the University of B.C., along Russ Baker Way, when he paused to admire how idyllic his surroundings were.
“There was a break in traffic and I was just pondering how nice it was that there were no cars on the road and I got to cycle on a quiet path,” Yuen said. Then he heard the crash.
“I thought it could be a truck that flipped over or something. I looked back and thought, ‘Holy shit, there’s this burning wreckage sliding towards me.’”
Yuen swerved off the road and jumped over a small ditch. The plane came to a stop 25 to 50 metres behind him, he estimated.
“I ran around, because there was a trail of fuel on fire where I was,” Yuen said.
“It was really hot. Everything was on fire.”
At least 10 motorists stopped and rushed to help the plane’s passengers without hesitation, Yuen said.
But he believes the passengers managed to get the plane’s door open themselves.
“Some people were staggering out. One guy was on his knees; he couldn’t really walk at the time.”
Yuen, who is trained in first aid, tended to a few of the passengers who were helped across the street.
“I did what I could to start first aid, but they were still conscious, so there wasn’t that much that we could do other than keep talking to keep them alert,” Yuen said.
Cross, who was sitting at an emergency exit door, said there were four passengers in front of her and two behind. The impact knocked several people out, including the man beside her.
The flames outside her door prevented her from opening it, but she knew that if she didn’t get out the rest in front of her would die.
“I couldn’t go out. It smelled full of gasoline. I heard the sound of the other group popping out the back door and then they left and I knew I had to get out because the people in front of me were obstructed by my presence and my funny angle,” she said.
“I went to get up and I could not walk. It was as if I had no legs, as if they were blown off. And I thought of my children, and God and the universe gave me the energy and I got up to the door. I said I don’t know what I am going to do now because I can’t get out of the plane, my legs, I can’t get out of the plane.”
Immediately, four bystanders grabbed her and pulled her away from the flaming wreckage.
“And then they went back for more. And people were shouting “the plane’s going to blow, it’s full of gas, we smell gas” but they went back in. It was amazing,” Cross said.
The heroes waded into the flaming wreckage, equipped only with personal fire extinguishers from their vehicles, and dragged out three more passengers.
A nurse from St. Paul’s Hospital named Colleen who happened to be driving in the vicinity stayed with Cross.
“She stayed with me, even though she had a nine-year-old child who was clearly upset in her car. She stabilized me and prevented me from having more back injuries than I already did. She was a trooper.”
But bravery has its limits.
The flames proved too great for the Good Samaritans to rescue the pilot, co-pilot and one other passenger.
Within minutes, a pumper truck from Richmond Fire Hall No. 4 — just a block away — arrived and dumped its entire load of foam on the plane. Still, the flames persisted.
The two YVR trucks on the inside of the fence were able to reach the aircraft with their booms, and within a minute dumped another 15,000 litres of foam.
Over the next 15 minutes flames continued to flare up, making it difficult for the two department’s first responders to get to the trapped people.
Eventually Robic, Fortin and the passenger were dragged to safety, but not before the two pilots were severely burned in the fire. Ambulances threaded their way through the knot of commuter traffic, rushing several less-injured people to Richmond Hospital. The most seriously injured, including Cross, were sent to Vancouver General Hospital.Just five hours after he tried to save his little aircraft, Fortin died of fire-related injuries. He left behind a wife and young child. His death was a blow both to family and those who knew him.
“He was a pretty experienced pilot,” said Bill Hesse, general manager of Prince George-based Northern Thunderbird Air, which has between 60 and 70 employees. “We just want to know what happened.”
Robic remains in critical condition with burns to 80 per cent of his body.
As for the passengers, by late Friday afternoon two remained in critical condition and four in stable but serious condition at VGH, according to Anna Marie D’Angelo of Vancouver Coastal Health.
Two others, including passenger Tony Zanatta, were discharged overnight, one from VGH and one from Richmond Hospital.
Zanatta’s wife Leanne said her husband was extremely lucky to survive.
“He’s home. He can’t talk right now. He’s on some pretty major painkillers, so we’re all trying to regroup as a family.”
Two other passengers have been identified as Cameron Sobolik, president of Vancouver-based Teligence, and his wife Lorelei.
Ian MacLeod, the company’s general counsel, said the passengers all knew each other through a business association.
He didn’t know the extent of the Soboliks’ injuries.
“We just want Lorelei and Cameron to have as little injury as possible and to get back on their feet as soon as possible.”Recordings and radar data from YVR’s control tower have been taken by investigators and witnesses have been interviewed, Yearwood said.
A “black box” containing the pilots’ cockpit conversation — but not any physical data like the plane’s altitude — was recovered. The recordings were sent to the TSB’s lab in Ottawa Friday to be downloaded. Yearwood said he expected to receive the audio from those last few minutes by the end of next week.
Investigators completed the physical inspection of the crash site early Friday morning and soon will do a more in-depth study of the plane in a YVR hangar, he said.
Transport Canada spokeswoman Sara Johnston said that the federal department last conducted an inspection of Northern Thunderbird, including the aircraft involved in the crash, in April 2010 and did not uncover any problems.
Fortin and Robic both had valid commercial pilot licences and medical certificates. Johnston noted that Northern Thunderbird Air is a fully owned independent subsidiary of Central Mountain Air and operates from Prince George, with a base in Vancouver.
The company is authorized for flights under both instrument and visual flight rules; until the crash, it had a fleet of eight aircraft, including three King Air 100 planes, three Beech 1900 aircraft, one Cessna Caravan, and one King Air 350.
A Transport Canada minister’s observer has been assigned to monitor the safety board’s investigation and plans to follow up with Northern Thunderbird in the next few days, she said.Cross suffered several broken ribs and other fractures. But she said that’s a small price to pay for surviving a such a wreck.
“For someone who came out of such a high point in the sky with a malfunctioning plane, I am doing really well,” she said.
“It doesn’t matter because I should be squashed up and dead. I can handle this.”
Her husband Bob was in England and is returning home immediately. Their three children, aged nine to 15, are staying with relatives.
Cross doesn’t know if her children have yet seen her farewell message. But she doesn’t regret sending it and she is eternally grateful to be alive. And she says she owes it all to the heroes in the cockpit and those on the ground who dragged her to safety.
“I laid in bed last night understanding how lucky I am and that I am alive because of these people. I want them to know how brave they were.”
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