BRESLAU — An airport fire truck took up to 12 minutes to reach a helicopter that crashed 1,500 metres from the Region of Waterloo International Airport firehall Monday, killing one person and injuring another.
On its way, the $1-million truck suffered significant damage in a minor collision.
It’s clear some things went sideways when three fire services, police and paramedics rushed to Monday’s crash.
A review by The Record shows the emergency response was launched in confusion over the location and continued with uncertain communication in the minutes that followed.
That’s not unusual, Cambridge Fire Chief Bill Chesney said. When a small aircraft crashes, the location is often unknown. Rescuers respond with information they have. They change their response when information is updated.
“That is from my experience not an unusual situation in aircraft crashes, because of the fact that the initial information is usually not that clear,” he said.
The crash killed flight instructor Tiffany Hanna and badly injured student pilot Scott Puillandre.
The Record prepared a preliminary timeline for the crash response based on dispatch records and interviews with responders. Times are rounded to the nearest minute.
* * *
11:32 a.m.: Personnel in the airport control tower see the two-seater helicopter go down just after takeoff. But they don’t have it on radar and can’t see where it crashed.
They call 911 with their best guess. The call comes in as: Helicopter down in the trees around Fountain Street and Kossuth Road. That’s just south of the airport.
In fact, the helicopter has crashed in a drainage pond at the airport, 700 metres from the tower.
The control tower also triggers an airport alarm. Airport personnel hear the alarm and check with the tower. Is this a drill?
Normally the airport has up to three maintenance staff trained to respond as firefighters if needed. But when the alarm sounded Monday there was only one on duty. The second was on holiday. The third had called in sick.
The lone firefighter on duty was not in the firehall. He was hanging Christmas decorations in the passenger terminal.
11:33: Waterloo Regional Police dispatch a cruiser toward the airport.
11:34: A second 911 call is made from the airport, not by the control tower but by someone who can see the helicopter in the water.
The first people to reach the crash are workers building a fence nearby. They plunge into the water to begin rescuing the crash victims. There’s no fire.
An ambulance is dispatched toward the airport.
11:35: Cambridge sends firefighters from Preston and Galt. They believe the crash is at Fountain and Kossuth despite the second 911 call clarifying the location.
At the airport, the lone firefighter on duty rushes to the firehall, which is one kilometre from the terminal. Taking out the fire truck, he also heads for Fountain and Kossuth, based on the best guess provided by the control tower. But he’s slowed by an airport security gate not meant for emergencies.
To open the gate, the driver dismounts from the cabin, swipes a key card and climbs back in. In driving through, the fire truck side-swipes a bollard guarding the card swipe. The bollard dents the truck, caving in part of a box housing hose connections.
The damaged fire truck heads toward Fountain and Kossuth.
11:40: Waterloo Regional Police are the first to reach the crash site. Woolwich Township is notified that a helicopter may have crashed at the airport in its territory.
11:41: Cambridge firefighters are still searching for a crash they can’t find at Fountain and Kossuth. Along the way they encounter the airport fire truck.
11:43: An airport supervisor trained in rescue reaches the crash in a pickup truck, followed a minute later by airport manager Chris Wood.
11:45: The airport fire truck reaches the crash after learning its location.
11:43 to 11:46: Woolwich gets firefighters on the road from stations in Maryhill and Breslau.
11:46: The first ambulance reaches the crash. After walking five minutes across rough terrain, paramedics find one victim dead, the other alive.
11:52 to 11:56 a.m.: Woolwich and Cambridge firefighters reach the crash.
* * *
Airport manager Chris Wood figures that in an ideal response, the airport fire truck might have reached the crash within three minutes.
The Record timeline suggests this might have put trained rescuers at the scene by 11:36 a.m., four minutes before police actually arrived. Would this have made a difference in the outcome? Wood can’t say.
Paramedics say the crash victim had no pulse when police arrived despite rescue efforts by bystanders.
“Trauma victims who are vital signs absent have a very, very low likelihood of survival even if the bystanders had started CPR before we got there,” said John Prno, director of regional paramedics.
The airport is only required to have firefighters on standby for WestJet flights. When only one came to work in the morning, the airport chose not to call in another on overtime. That’s because three were expected for an afternoon shift covering the WestJet flight.
The security gate that damaged the fire truck may be reviewed. Planners did not expect the truck to leave the airport except on rare occasions. The solution may be a button inside the truck to open the gate. “That’s kind of a lesson learned,” Wood said.
He could not estimate the damage to the fire truck. “It’s significant,” he said. The truck is to be hauled to eastern Ontario for repairs. The airport will rely on a backup.
Rescuers plan a debriefing across all agencies to consider how the fatal helicopter crash was handled.
That’s welcome news to farmer John Hagey. He owns the field bordering the pond and was working nearby when the helicopter crashed.
Before the airport fire truck arrived, Hagey used his front-end loader to punch a hole through his fence to help rescuers reach the victims. Just 30 metres away is an old gate for emergency access. It’s overgrown with vines, invisible and forgotten.
“Had the gate been maintained and allowed them immediate access, they would have been right over there,” he said.
Wood said the fire truck, had it arrived earlier, would not have bothered with the access gate. It would have busted down the fence as it’s designed to do.
Hagey hopes safety gets a close examination when the crash response is reviewed. “Safety is the single most important thing on people’s minds when they go to an airport to fly somewhere,” he said.
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