Wreckage of a Nootka Air float plane is visible from the air above a steep treed slope on the Hesquiat Peninsula. The aircraft crashed minutes after takeoff Friday. (CBC) Pilot killed in Hesquiat Lake plane crash identified: Grant Clifford Howatt, aged 66, from Ladysmith, was the pilot of Air Nootka plane
The B.C. Coroners Service has identified the pilot who died in a float plane crash near Hesquiat Lake north of Tofino last weekend.
"Grant Clifford Howatt, aged 66, from Ladysmith, was the pilot of the Air Nootka plane which crashed moments after taking off from Hesquiat Lake on a flight to Gold River late on the morning of Aug. 16," said a statement issued by coroner Barb McLintock.
Mountaineer Charles Henry Turner, 63, was previously identified by his friends as the second person killed in the crash.
Four other passengers survived when the small plane struck a tree while taking off from the remote lake.
The BC Coroners Service, Transportation Safety Board, and WorkSafeBC continue to investigate the crash, said McLintock.
"Grant Clifford Howatt, aged 66, from Ladysmith, was the pilot of the Air Nootka plane which crashed moments after taking off from Hesquiat Lake on a flight to Gold River late on the morning of Aug. 16," said a statement issued by coroner Barb McLintock.
Mountaineer Charles Henry Turner, 63, was previously identified by his friends as the second person killed in the crash.
Four other passengers survived when the small plane struck a tree while taking off from the remote lake.
The BC Coroners Service, Transportation Safety Board, and WorkSafeBC continue to investigate the crash, said McLintock.
John Young survived the Air Nootka crash and spoke exclusively to Global News.One of the four survivors of the deadly float plane crash in a remote area near Tofino on Vancouver Island on Saturday spoke exclusively to Global News about the terrifying plane crash.
Nanaimo resident John Young is lucky to be alive, recovering in Victoria General Hospital with a shattered sternum, broken ribs, broken clavicle and third-degree burns to his legs.
He is one of two survivors who are in hospital; the other, a female hiker who suffered serious burns to her legs and a broken upper arm.
Young was seated next to the pilot on the flight.
Two people died in the crash, including the pilot who had 25,000 hours of flying experience.
Young says the pilot died in the ensuing blaze after the crash.
Two other people on the plane managed to escape with minor injuries.
The Air Nootka plane had picked up the group of five hikers to take them 40 kilometres to Gold River.
Young says due to poor weather, the pilot altered his course south across Hesquiat Peninsula en route to Gold River.
“It was very foggy and drizzling, because of the low cloud ceiling, we didn’t head directly to gold river from Hesquiat Lake, we went south and across Hesquiat Peninsula,” says Young.
It was when the plane was over the peninsula that it started to go down.
“We started to go down, and the pilot said, ‘Mayday we are going down,’ I saw a tree looming and the wing must have hit the tree.”
“Then we hit the ground, I could hear people moaning, and the pilot was yelling ‘open the doors, open the doors!’”
“10 seconds after we hit the ground, there was a pouf of flame in front of me, I couldn’t get the door open beside me, so I could see that the pilot door swung open, so I started to crawl over there.”
“The person behind me reached for the alarm button the dash, and then his hand stopped moving. I figured he must have died.”
“I went to try to get out and my feet were trapped between the seat and the front. I pulled and pulled and couldn’t get them loose, then I stopped pulling and squirmed, and I got out of the plane.”
“I could hear one of the women on the other side screaming to help her, and I went around; one hand was out, there were flames around her, I grabbed and pulled her, and she couldn’t move. Then I got her out, but she was in pretty bad shape, her pants had melted on her.”
“The pilot was there and he had one hand reaching out, I pulled, and brought him a little bit out, but I couldn’t get him out any more. He died.”
“I met up with the other hiker and the two that weren’t hurt, got us all together and kept us warm, and the rescue helicopters found us.”
Young says they waited about four and half hours to be rescued. He says the two hikers who were not seriously injured constructed a lean-to for shelter.
“We heard a helicopter right away, so we knew that they knew there was an accident, but because the beacon wasn’t set up, they didn’t know where we were,” he says.
“We heard them doing their grid search, twice they got really close to us, but then they turned back. The third time, they hovered really close for a minute, and then they came closer and were above us.”
“Then they lowered their three paramedics down, got us out of there.”
Young says the fire started in the front of the plane. He says the two people who survived with only minor injuries were seated in the rear of the plane.
The identities of the two hikers who died have not yet been released, but Young says the group was made up of people from Courtenay and Salt Spring Island.
Watch Sunday’s News Hour for more on this story and audio from the interview.
When the distress call came, Dianne Ignace’s stomach dropped.
“It said, ‘Mayday. Downed craft,’” she said.
“I thought, ‘Oh my god, I just met all of those people.’”
The Hesquiaht Village local had just finished serving a breakfast of eggs and hash browns for 20 campers on Friday morning when she heard three float planes fly overhead, on their way to pick up different groups of hikers from nearby Hesquiat Lake on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
When she later heard two float planes returning, Ignace said she didn’t think anything of it until those three panic-filled words rang out over the marine radio in her living room.
That call for help triggered a four-hour ground, air and marine search after a De Havilland Beaver float plane carrying a pilot and five passengers, believed to be hikers, crashed shortly after taking off from Hesquiat Lake, about 53 kilometres northwest of Tofino, B.C. An aircraft with the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre found the crash site and four survivors around 3 p.m. Friday.
Of the people on board, two are dead, two are seriously injured and two others are “OK,” said Bill Yearwood of the Transportation Safety Board. Those two were reportedly well enough to be able to walk away from the crash.
The two injured were taken to Victoria General Hospital, where they were in stable condition Saturday, an improvement from earlier when one was listed as critical, said Vancouver Island Health Authority spokesman Dan MacLennan.
The injured were transported by Cormorant helicopter to hospital, while the two seemingly uninjured passengers were taken to CFB Comox to be checked out by medical staff, said Capt. Patrick McSorley of the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre.
B.C. Coroners Service spokeswoman Barb McLintock wrote by email that identities of the deceased would not be released until all family are notified. That’s not expected to happen until at least Monday.
Tofino RCMP, West Coast Search and Rescue crews and officials with the Coroners Service travelled to the crash site on Saturday, according to Cpl. Darren Lagan of Island District RCMP.
RCMP officers were reportedly guarding the site overnight as the bodies of the two deceased remained with the wreckage.
Attempts to travel to the site by air were hampered Saturday morning by poor weather conditions. The RCMP’s Air 8 helicopter was on stand by to assist if weather improved, according to an Island District RCMP release.
The float plane was chartered by Air Nootka, a Vancouver Island float plane operation that was still operating from its Gold River headquarters Saturday. The company said it is co-operating with Transportation Safety Board investigators and RCMP.
“All Air Nootka aircraft are professionally maintained to the highest standards by an independent company,” the company wrote in a statement. “Safety is Air Nootka’s number one priority and the company is compliant with all federal and provincial regulations.”
Ignace, who’s lived on Hesquiat Peninsula for 38 years, said float planes travelling back to Gold River after picking up the hikers at Hesquiat Lake, typically fly southwest into the harbour to go around the mountain range. She said the flight path doesn’t go directly to the northeast straight to Gold River. On a clear day, she said, it’s possible to cut west across the peninsula, flying overland.
But in bad weather, with low visibility, Ignace said it’s considered safest to fly south along the coast, where visibility is clearest.
Ignace speculated that it’s possible the pilot may have tried to cut across the peninsula, before crashing into the forested area near Boat Basin.
Ignace said she discussed this version of events with a local pilot and they both believed it seemed likely. A man who answered the phone Saturday at Air Nootka also agreed it seemed possible.
Weather conditions in the region can change quickly, Ignace said, and the visibility was likely significantly worse on the return leg of the pilot’s flight to Gold River than it was on his approach into Hesquiat Lake.
“The fact that anybody survived is probably due to some immediate reaction time of the pilot,” Ignace said. “If he had not done something right, they would have all been gone. So his immediate reaction was probably good.”
Friday’s crash isn’t the first time an Air Nootka float plane has found itself in distress.
In August 2005, one of the company’s float plane carrying eight hikers overturned when it hit a sandbar during an emergency landing at Louie Bay on Nootka Island, about 25 km southwest of Zeballos. The passengers were uninjured in the incident, but the pilot needed a few stitches for a gash to the forehead.
Hesquiaht Village is a popular spot for hikers along the Hesquiat Peninsula trail.
Ignace, who runs a gift shop that sees about 100 hikers a year, said she met the five hikers involved in the crash when they stopped by her gift shop on Wednesday.
“You just get to know somebody, somebody new, and then next thing you know, they’re in a crash,” Ignace said. “It’s really sad.”
The hikers bought fudge, water, cedar bark roses and refilled their water, items which Ignace recorded in a ledger. Ignace remembered the hikers clearly because of the Japanese glass fishing float that she sold to one of the women. Ignace found the glass ball washed up on the shore, which she believes may have been debris from the Japanese tsunami.
Ignace said she believed the hikers were white, in their 50s and spoke English, but she wasn’t sure if they were from the Lower Mainland.
The group was about halfway through the 50-kilometre hike. Hesquiat Lake is a two-day hike away, and most hikers get picked up by float plane and returned to Gold River, she said.
Officials with the rescue centre found the wreckage and crash site near Boat Basin at the head of Hesquiat Harbour around 3 p.m. on Friday, said Lt. Navy Greg Menzies of the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre.
After getting the distress call, Menzies said the centre dispatched multiple aircraft, including two Cormorant military helicopters from CFB Comox and a Buffalo aircraft, to search a 34-square-kilometre area in Hesquiat Lake Provincial Park.
Poor weather conditions and a low cloud ceiling hampered rescue efforts, forcing the Cormorants to fly about 150 feet above the tree tops, he said.
The low cloud ceiling forced the Buffalo aircraft involved in the search earlier to return to base, said Menzies.
The RCMP West Coast Marine Section had a ship in the area as well, while ground crews also took part in the search efforts.
Jean Jackson of the Hesquiaht First Nation, members of which took part in the search efforts for the plane wreckage, said bad weather could have been a factor in the plane crash.
“It was just pouring down this morning, like huge, hard gale-force winds,” she said on Friday. “The boats couldn’t get out of the harbour. If you got in, you couldn’t get out.”
Josh Charleson, a member of the Hesquiaht First Nation, formed a search party to find the crash site and look for survivors.
Charleson said the weather was gusty and foggy on Friday morning. “It was pretty ugly most of the day,” he said.
After hearing about the crash, the 24-year-old said he hopped on a quad and tried to reach the crash site, located on the side of a mountain about 90 metres from a logging road, but the Cormorant helicopter found the plane wreckage first, he said.
“I’m kind of glad that we didn’t (get there first),” he said.
Source: http://www.theprovince.com
