Luc Fortin, 44, of North Vancouver, was the pilot killed during yesterday's fiery plane crash near Vancouver International Airport.
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VANCOUVER - The pilot killed during yesterday's fiery plane crash near Vancouver International Airport has been identified as 44-year-old Luc Fortin of North Vancouver.
The B.C. Coroner Service confirmed this morning that Fortin died from "thermal" injuries.
The co-pilot, 26-year-old Matt Robic, remains in critical but stable condition with burns to 80 per cent of his body, according to Bill Hesse, the general manager of Prince George-based Northern Thunderbird Air, which operated the downed charter.
Fortin died just after 10 p.m. last night, at Vancouver General Hospital, said coroner Owen Court. An autopsy is currently underway, he said. "The next of kin was present at the time of his death," Court told The Sun Friday morning.
Court said the coroner service will continue to work closely with the federal transportation safety board (TSB), moving forward with the investigation.
"He [Fortin] was a pretty experienced pilot," Hesse said in an interview. "He's been with us since 2007."
Fortin was a 14,000-hour pilot who had worldwide flying experience taking him to Canada's north, Antarctica, the Maldives and many other places around the globe, Hesse said.
Hesse, who arrived in Vancouver this morning, said Fortin leaves behind a wife and child.
Robic, a 1,400-hour pilot, joined the company in June of this year, Hesse added.
The airline is a small company with between 60 and 70 employees. "We just want to know what happened," he said, adding that he has more questions than answers at this point about caused the crash.
Hesse said the company was in communication with the plane via radio and satellite before it crashed, but he wouldn't share other details.
As of 9 a.m. Friday morning, two patients involved in the crash remained in the intensive care unit at VGH, according to a Vancouver Coastal Health release. Four other patients from the crash are in stable, but serious condition at VGH, and two others were released from hospital last night after receiving treatment—one from VGH and one from Richmond.
No patients remain at Richmond Hospital, said VCH spokeswoman, Trudi Beutel, in the release, adding that all next of kin have been notified.
Lead crash investigator Bill Yearwood told a news conference Friday that it was an oil indicator light that prompted the pilots of the flight to turn back for YVR while flying at about 4,600 metres above Golden Ears Provincial Park.
The caution light did not prompt an emergency, but, as per procedure, forced the pilots to turn around roughly 15 minutes into the flight.
About 900 metres from the runway back at Vancouver International Airport and with its landing gear down in a stable approach, the plane veered 90 degrees to the left and crashed into Russ Baker Way, Yearwood said.
"That's our challenge: to determine why what appeared to be a benign indicator problem turned into such a tragic event," Yearwood said.
As it crashed, the plane hit a lamppost and a car. The car wasn't badly damaged, but its occupants were taken to hospital, Yearwood said.
"It was fortunate that it was clear enough for them to come to a stop before colliding with too many objects or people."
Recordings and radar data from YVR's control tower have been taken by investigators and witnesses have been interviewed Yearwood said.
A "blackbox" containing the pilots' cockpit conversation - but not any physical data like the plane's altitude - was recovered roughly intact.
The recordings were sent to the TSB's lab in Ottawa on Friday to be downloaded. Yearwood said he expected to have the audio from those last few minutes before the crash in his hands by the end of next week.
Meanwhile investigators completed the physical inspection of the crash site early Friday morning and soon will do more in depth study of the plane's machinery as it sits in a YVR hangar, according to Yearwood.
Transport Canada spokeswoman Sara Johnston said Friday that the federal department last conducted an inspection of Northern Thunderbird, including the aircraft involved in Thursday's crash, in April 2010 and did not uncover any problems.
The captain and first officer had valid commercial pilot licenses and valid 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 sub-based 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 transportation safety board's investigation and plans to follow up with Northern Thunderbird in the next few days, she said.
The crash occurred shortly after 4 p.m. at the intersection of Gilbert Road and Russ Baker Way. Bridges around YVR, including the No. 2 Road Bridge, were closed into the evening, disrupting the afternoon commute.
Officials said all traffic disruptions have been resolved as of Friday morning.
Terry McBratney, a Metro Vancouver district supervisor for BC Ambulance who was at the scene of the crash, said it was "amazing anyone survived."
The plane landed when there was a break in traffic, he said.
"It was lucky."
"If the plane had landed 30 seconds later, it would have taken out a row of cars."
McBratney said the plane took out a light standard and part of a concrete median, losing its propeller along the way.
Nikolai Jensen was walking in the area when he saw the plane going sideways, "one wing was dipping down," he said. "It was coming straight for me, of all people to go toward, I'm alone and this plane's coming straight for me."
He said the plane was trying to use the road straight in front of it as a runway. By the time it stopped it was only about nine metres (30 feet) away from him. "I was thanking the maker by then," he said, "and I'm not a very religious man."
He told Global News that when the plane came to a halt, people in cars around the crash jumped out and rushed toward the wreckage to help. "They were dragging these people out," he said. " ... Way before police arrived or anyone."
He said the rescuers seemed unfazed by the burning wreckage — they just wanted to save peoples' lives despite the risk to their own.
"Heroic qualities really," he said.
Vincent Varona was driving southbound on Russ Baker Way when he noticed the plane flying erratically.
"Directly ahead of me in the sky I saw the plane bank really hard to its left, and then immediately to its right, as if it were out of control," he said.
"It was still going very fast, and at that speed it was lower to the ground than a plane making a normal descent would be, so putting all of these things together, I thought to myself, 'It's going to crash.' "
Varona turned a corner, where trees momentarily blocked his view of the plane, "and sure enough once I drove forward another few metres, I saw smoke billowing from maybe another kilometre or so in front of me."
Yearwood said the Beechcraft King Air 100 is common in the industry, and the Pratt and Whitney engine has a reputation for reliability. "There was nothing on our watch list about this aircraft or this type of operation," he said.
The transportation safety board had five investigators on the site late Thursday night. The source of the problem will be the focus of its investigation in coming days.
The stretch of Russ Baker Way is expected to be closed until at least this morning.
Two pilots died in 2005 when a twin-engined Northern Thunderbird King Air 200 crashed near Squamish.
Yearwood said that crash occurred when the plane was transitioning from Vancouver to Prince George. The pilot flew up a valley and was in a steep climb trying to avoid terrain when the plane crashed.
In 2001, a Northern Thunderbird single-engine Cessna 185 crashed north of Prince George while under government charter to do a wildlife survey. The pilot and passenger survived.
The Beechcraft King Air 100 was built in 1970, according to aircraft registration information.
Northern Thunderbird's website states that the company, also known as NT Air, has been providing charter and scheduled services to B.C. and Yukon since 1971.
"Our roots are in the float, ski and off-strip work in BC's north and although we have moved on to modern aircraft, practices and covering a larger geographical area; it is this historical experience that drives our company today. We take pride in doing the hard jobs and doing it without compromising safety or professionalism.
"We hold our people to a high level of accountability and reward them based on performance and leadership. We put careful thought into what we promise and never make our problems our clients' problems. Thinking and delivering 'outside the box' is what we do best."
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