The staff at Pitt Meadows’ Pacific Rim Aviation Academy are mourning their colleague, instructor James Stevens this week, after the 71-year-old was killed in a float plane crash Monday afternoon.
“James Stevens was a man among men and a gentle giant whose instructional capabilities, were beyond exception. He loved to fly,” flight school owner Chris Georgas said in a statement to the media Thursday.
Stevens was killed when the Cessna 172 he was flying in with a 55-year-old male student flipped in Pitt Lake Monday just after 4 p.m. The cabin was submerged under water. His student survived with only minor injuries and was treated and released from hospital Monday evening.
Bill Yearwood, the Transportation Safety Board’s regional manager for aviation accident investigations said the float plane had been doing touch and go — consecutive touch down and take off manoeuvers — in gusty wind conditions at the time of the crash.
Pacific Rim staff called Stevens “Arizona Jim,” Georgas recalled, for his yearly habit of heading south for the winter. He was admired as a “respected colleague, dedicated co-worker and ... pilot instructor whose diligence, pre-flight planning, quiet and decisive cockpit management skills and general knowledge of his ‘water world’ environment could easily be described as being without equal.” Georgas explained.
Now, his colleagues are left reeling from his tragic loss.
“It has taken these past few days for all of us to come to grips with the fact that he won’t be showing up at the Fraser River Float Ramp,” Georgas wrote. “What a smile our Jim has. Standing there in his Tilley hat, black jacket, life vest and lunch box and those ‘god awful’ rubber gum boots he always wore when one of his float plane students was about to solo in that shiny, bright Cessna 172 office he loved to fly.”
On the company website, Stevens is described as a veteran pilot. “Many people at our airport were trained by Jim decades ago,’ it states. “Some now have white hair or no hair at all. With thousands of hours of bush flying and float plane experience, Jim is the instructor of choice for seaplane ratings and taildragger conversion. His vast experience, knowledge and his caring attitude are a safe flying asset to our school.”
Georgas and the company extended their thoughts to Stevens’ “immediate family of wife, sons and daughters and grandchildren who knew and loved him as ‘Grandpa Jim,’ our thoughts and prayers are with you at this time.”
And Georgas stressed that his legacy of teaching will continue with his students. “To the group of youthful, highly trained and caring Instructors who are struggling with the loss of a dear friend and respected colleague,” he concluded, “the lesson is not over by a long-shot.”
A coast guard dive team returns a body to the Grant Narrows Regional Park dock area Monday afternoon after a plane crashed into Pitt Lake The plane would be retrieved later.
A 71-year-old flying instructor from Surrey is dead, while his 55-year-old passenger was treated in hospital following a float plane crash on Pitt Lake, Monday.
Police said the two were in a Pacific Rim Aviation Academy Cessna 172 float plane from Pitt Meadows Regional Airport.
The plane flipped over on the lake at about 4:30 p.m. during stormy conditions.
“They were carrying out touch-and-go landings for training. During the sixth touch-and-go the aircraft tipped over,” said Bill Yearwood, with the Transportation Safety Board.
“The student was able to get out, but tragically the instructor was not.”
Yearwood said when a plane over turns in water it can be challenging even for an uninjured person to get out. Many people have died in such instances, he added.
“It is a risk when an aircraft upsets and submerges.
“The student made an attempt to help the instructor, but the aircraft was filling up with water fast. He was unable to help him.”
About an hour later, a passing boater rescued the student, who had been sitting on the plane’s pontoons.
Yearwood pointed out that both were wearing lifejackets.
“There’s no information to suggest any medical issues.”
The coroner will determine cause of death, whether from injuries caused in the accident or from drowning or both.
Weather conditions were challenging at the time incident. “The winds strong and gusty.”
Yearwood said another pilot in the area at the time returned to the airport because of the strong winds.
Canadian Coast Guard brought its hovercraft to the south end of Pitt Lake while members of the RCMP and Coast Guard dive teams went to the accident site and retrieved the body at about 6:30 p.m.
The student pilot was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries, then released that night and interviewed Tuesday by Transportation Safety Board staff.
The wreck of the plane was barged down the Pitt and Fraser rivers Tuesday to the Pitt Meadows airport so that TSB staff could inspect it today.
Tom Drybrough with Island Coastal Aviation, was also instructing at Pitt Lake that afternoon.
The lesson ended about 3:30 p.m., but the weather was starting to close in, said Drybrough.
Conditions were getting turbulent, “but there was nothing out there that was abnormal.”
One person is dead and another taken to hospital after a float plane crashed Monday afternoon in Pitt Lake.
Capt. Erik Niemi, an air controller with the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, said the Cessna 172, which took off from Pitt Meadows airport with two people on board, was found in the southern part of the lake by a boater.
One man managed to get out of the plane and was rescued by the boater. He was taken to hospital and is expected to survive.
However, Niemi said the other person in the plane – who he had no information about - was not responsive after a rescue hovercraft and Cormorant helicopter attended the scene.
The person who died was reportedly trapped in the upside-down plane, but Niemi couldn't confirm that.
Niemi also said he didn't know if the plane crashed during takeoff or landing, and that it might have been a training flight.
He said Transport Canada will be conducting an investigation.
One person has been killed and another is in hospital with undetermined injuries after a small plane crashed late Monday afternoon into Pitt Lake, east of Vancouver.
The Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria says the plane had taken off shortly before the crash from the nearby Pitt Meadows airport.
It's unclear at this time what caused the aircraft to go down.
Weather conditions were overcast at the time of the crash.
One person is dead and another taken to hospital after a float plane crashed Monday afternoon in Pitt Lake.
Capt. Erik Niemi, an air controller with the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, said the Cessna 172, which took off from Pitt Meadows airport with two people on board, was found in the southern part of the lake by a boater.
One man managed to get out of the plane and was rescued by the boater. He was taken to hospital and is expected to survive.
However, Niemi said the other person in the plane – who he had no information about - was not responsive after a rescue hovercraft and Cormorant helicopter attended the scene.
The person who died was reportedly trapped in the upside-down plane, but Niemi couldn't confirm that.
Niemi also said he didn't know if the plane crashed during takeoff or landing, and that it might have been a training flight.
He said Transport Canada will be conducting an investigation.
One person has been killed and another is in hospital with undetermined injuries after a small plane crashed late Monday afternoon into Pitt Lake, east of Vancouver.
The Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria says the plane had taken off shortly before the crash from the nearby Pitt Meadows airport.
It's unclear at this time what caused the aircraft to go down.
Weather conditions were overcast at the time of the crash.
METRO VANCOUVER -- A rescue hovercraft and Cormorant helicopter were heading to the scene of a floatplane crash on Pitt Lake late Monday where a person was possibly trapped inside.
Capt. Erik Niemi, an air controller with the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, said the Cessna 172, which took off from Pitt Meadows airport and was apparently upside down in the water, crashed at about 4 p.m. Monday and that a passenger escaped. A vessel on the lake discovered the plane.
