A British Columbia mother whose son died after a 2011 plane crash is
pleading for airplanes to be fitted with an inexpensive device that
could have saved his life.
Pilots Matt Robic, 26, and Luc
Fortin, 44, were at the controls on Oct. 27, 2011, when their
twin-engine plane crashed and burned just short of the runway while
trying to make an emergency landing at Vancouver airport.
The two
pilots died from burns suffered in a 2011 crash near Vancouver
airport.The two pilots died from burns suffered in a 2011 crash near
Vancouver airport. (CBC)
Fortin died within a few hours of the
crash, while co-pilot Robic succumbed to his severe burns three weeks
later. Their seven passengers survived — some with serious injuries —
after scrambling out of the burning Beechcraft King Air plane.
An
initial report suggested the fire could have been prevented by a simple
kill switch, which cuts power from the battery and stops sparks from
igniting spilled fuel.
"You deal with the grieving, with all the
things you’ve got to deal with and then you find out the accident was
survivable, that there was no reason for him to get burned like that,
that was the killer," said Robic's mother, Corinna Robic.
Full of fuel
The
NT Air flight from Vancouver to Kelowna had almost a full load of fuel
aboard. The pilots turned the flight around about 15 minutes after
taking off when an oil indicator light suggested there was a problem
with the aircraft and were given permission to return for an emergency
landing.
The aircraft crashed on a public road, about 900 metres short of the runway.
The
Transportation Safety Board recommended five years ago that all planes
install a kill switch — at a cost of a few hundred dollars — that would
automatically cut off power on impact,
The TSB's Bill Yearwood agrees the switch might have saved Robic's life.
"It’s easy to conclude this is one way to remove fires or post-crash fires," Yearwood said.
Corinna Robic wrote to the federal minister of transport asking for kill switches to be required.
The
ministry did respond in writing, saying it was working to reduce crash
fatalities due to fires, but gave no indication it will make the kill
switch mandatory.
Story and video: http://www.cbc.ca
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