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Four die in helicopter crash in remote northwest B.C. location |
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Written by THE CANADIAN PRESS
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Wednesday, 06 August 2008 |
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VICTORIA - A small helicopter carrying people on a mineral-exploration flight crashed into a fast-flowing, icy northern B.C. river Wednesday, killing all four people on board.
The Hughes aircraft belonging to Prism Helicopters of Pitt Meadows, near Vancouver, was flying out of a camp at Alice Arm, about 150 kilometres northeast of Prince Rupert, when it went down.
A rescue team parachuted into the crash site, at the top of a fiord bordered by steep mountains, but found the mangled aircraft upside down in the Kitsault River. It was a struggle to remove two of the victims' bodies from the wreckage.
"It's not how we would have liked it to end," said Second-Lt. Jill Strelieff of the Victoria Rescue Co-ordination Centre.
"Whenever we have a situation like this, we always hope for the best outcome and unfortunately in this situation we didn't have any survivors."
Strelieff said it was a dangerous mission for search-and-rescue technicians.
"It's very difficult terrain, so it makes things a little bit riskier," Strelieff said.
"The helicopter was left inverted in the river and Kitsault is known as being a very fast-moving river, which increases the difficulties when you're trying to get into that."
Prism president Dave Zall said in an interview the pilot, whose name has not been released, was "very experienced, a very good pilot, one of the best in the industry."
"It's tough on everybody, a sad day for this company and our hearts go out to the families (of the other victims)," said Zall, who knew the pilot well.
"It's tough to deal with. We're doing the best we can under the circumstances."
Zall said he had no detailed information on the circumstances of the 7 a.m. crash but understood weather was clear. He did not say who had chartered the helicopter.
Prism, founded in 1985, operates a fleet of 26 helicopters from the small, teardrop-shaped MD500 to larger transport and cargo choppers.
The company, with bases in northern B.C., Vancouver Island and Alaska, mainly is chartered by logging, mining and construction firms.
Transportation Safety Board records show Prism had two fatal accidents in the last eight years, both involving the same type of helicopter that crashed Wednesday.
A Prism aircraft with just the pilot on board disappeared Oct. 15, 2002, on a flight from Terrace, B.C., to Sandspit on the Queen Charlotte Islands. Wreckage was later recovered from the ocean floor south of Prince Rupert. Investigators concluded only that the helicopter had hit the water.
The pilot transporting cedar shake blocks on Vancouver Island was also killed Oct. 31, 2000, when a main-rotor blade failure caused another Hughes chopper to go down.
Federal Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon issued a statement of condolence and a promise to ensure Prism complies with set safety requirements.
"Transport Canada follows up on every aviation accident in Canada to ensure that an accident of this nature can be avoided in future," he said.
"As such, we will co-operate fully with the Transportation Safety Board as they investigate and determine the cause.
It was the second fatal crash of an aircraft in British Columbia in less than a week.
On Sunday, a 64-year-old amphibious plane slammed into a mountainside and exploded near Port Hardy on Vancouver Island, killing five of the seven people on board.
The dead included four employees of Seaspan International Ltd. of Vancouver who were en route to load a log barge on the island's northwest coast.
Seaspan said Wednesday two of the dead worked for the company for 30 years - Terry Axton, 51, of Maple Ridge, B.C., and Scott Thorne, 56, of Vancouver.
A third worker, Grant Wood, 62, of Chilliwack, B.C., worked for Seaspan for 23 years, while 48-year-old Mark McLean of Comox, B.C., had just joined the company in June.
The pilot of the twin-engine Grumman Goose was identified Tuesday as 36-year-old Simon Lawrence, of Port Hardy.
Two other men survived, including Bob Pomponio, who crawled away from the burned wreckage to the mountain-top and used his cell phone to send out text messages that led rescuers to the site of the crash.
The owner of the aircraft, Pacific Coast Airlines, held a memorial service on Tuesday, in which four Grumman Goose seaplanes flew over the company's hanger in Port Hardy.
An ultralight aircraft with one aboard also crashed in B.C. on Monday, but the wreckage has not been recovered.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 06 August 2008 )
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