VANCOUVER - Fourty-four-year-old Luc Fortin of North Vancouver died from his injuries sustained in the plane crash Thursday night in Richmond, but it appears what happened could have been so much worse. The plane hit a light standard that pushed the aircraft nose up so the plane 'pancaked' onto the road, and when considering options for a crash location, the road seems to have been the best choice at the time.
Survivors are not only praising Fortin for doing what he could to land the plane, but are also thanking the bystanders who were there before the emergency responders, and were pulling people out of the burning wreckage at great risk to their own safety. Passenger Carolyn Cross spoke to Global BC about what happened, and how she is still alive to tell her tale.
Sadly, Fortin will never be able to hear the thanks and prayers himself. His injuries were just too severe.
Northern Thunderbird Air released the following statement Friday afternoon in regards to Fortin's death:
"Luc was a 14,000 hour pilot with extensive experience flying in the Canadian Arctic; BC; Yukon; Antarctic; Maldives; and many other areas of Canada and the world. He had been employed with Northern Thunderbird Air since 2007 and was one of our senior Captains flying the Beechcraft King Air 100 and Beechcraft 1900. Luc is survived by his wife, daughter and extended family."
Fortin died just after 10 p.m. last night, at Vancouver General Hospital, said coroner Owen Court.
The First Officer on the flight was 26-year-old Matt Robic, who is in critical but stable condition. Matt is a 1400 hour King Air and Beech 1900 co-pilot and has been employed with Northern Thunderbird Air since June,
Court said the coroner service will continue to work closely with the federal transportation safety board (TSB), moving forward with the investigation.
Nine people in total were treated at Vancouver General Hospital and Richmond General Hospital. Two people are still in the intensive care unit at VGH, four are in stable but serious condition at the same hospital, and two were treated and discharged overnight, one from VGH and one from Richmond.
Bill Yearwood, regional manager of the federal TSB, said the plane, a twin-engine Beechcraft King Air 100, had departed YVR but reported "an indication of a problem" in the area of Golden Ears Provincial Park.
He said the nature of the problem did not cause the crew to declare an emergency.
The plane was returning and cleared to land, but is believed to have clipped a lamp post before veering and hitting a vehicle containing two people, said Don Ehrenholz, YVR's vice-president of operations and engineering, and Cpl. Sherrdean Turley of Richmond RCMP.
The plane burst into flames upon impact, about 900 metres short of the runway.
The crash occurred shortly after 4 p.m. at the intersection of Gilbert Road and Russ Baker Way. Bridges around YVR, including the No. 2 Road Bridge, were closed into the evening, disrupting the afternoon commute.
Terry McBratney, a Metro Vancouver district supervisor for BC Ambulance who was at the scene of the crash, said it was "amazing anyone survived."
The plane landed when there was a break in traffic, he said.
"It was lucky."
"If the plane had landed 30 seconds later, it would have taken out a row of cars."
McBratney said the plane took out a light standard and part of a concrete median, losing its propeller along the way.
Nikolai Jensen was walking in the area when he saw the plane going sideways, "one wing was dipping down," he said. "It was coming straight for me, of all people to go towards, I'm alone and this plane's coming straight for me."
He said the plane was trying to use the road straight in front of it as a runway. By the time it stopped it was only about nine metres (30 feet) away from him. "I was thanking the maker by then," he said, "and I'm not a very religious man."
He told Global BC that when the plane came to a halt, people in cars around the crash jumped out and rushed toward the wreckage to help. "They were dragging these people out," he said. " ... Way before police arrived or anyone."
He said the rescuers seemed unfazed by the burning wreckage — they just wanted to save peoples' lives despite the risk to their own.
"Heroic qualities really," he said.
Vincent Varona was driving southbound on Russ Baker Way when he noticed the plane flying erratically.
"Directly ahead of me in the sky I saw the plane bank really hard to its left, and then immediately to its right, as if it were out of control," he said.
"It was still going very fast, and at that speed it was lower to the ground than a plane making a normal descent would be, so putting all of these things together, I thought to myself, 'It's going to crash.' "
Varona turned a corner, where trees momentarily blocked his view of the plane, "and sure enough once I drove forward another few metres, I saw smoke billowing from maybe another kilometre or so in front of me."
Yearwood said the Beechcraft King Air 100 is common in the industry, and the Pratt and Whitney engine has a reputation for reliability. "There was nothing on our watch list about this aircraft or this type of operation," he said.
The transportation safety board had five investigators on the site late Thursday night. The source of the problem will be the focus of its investigation in coming days.
The stretch of Russ Baker Way is expected to be closed until at least this morning.
Mike Harris, operations manager for Prince George-based Northern Thunderbird, would not immediately comment Thursday. "Right now is not really a good time. We're just kind of dealing with it."
Two pilots died in 2005 when a twin-engine Northern Thunderbird King Air 200 crashed near Squamish.
Yearwood said that crash occurred when the plane was transitioning from Vancouver to Prince George. The pilot flew up a valley and was in a steep climb trying to avoid terrain when the plane crashed.
In 2001, a Northern Thunderbird single-engine Cessna 185 crashed north of Prince George while under government charter to do a wildlife survey. The pilot and passenger survived.
The Beechcraft King Air 100 was built in 1970, according to aircraft registration information.
Northern Thunderbird's website states that the company, also known as NT Air, has been providing charter and scheduled services to B.C. and Yukon since 1971.
"Our roots are in the float, ski and off-strip work in BC's north and although we have moved on to modern aircraft, practices and covering a larger geographical area; it is this historical experience that drives our company today. We take pride in doing the hard jobs and doing it without compromising safety or professionalism.
"We hold our people to a high level of accountability and reward them based on performance and leadership. We put careful thought into what we promise and never make our problems our clients' problems. Thinking and delivering 'outside the box' is what we do best."
Audio of interview with crash survivor, Carolyn Cross, CEO of Ondine Biomedical.
The Transportation Safety Board is taking the lead on the investigation. “The majority of officers working yesterday at Richmond Detachment assisted with this investigation in one way or another. From General Duty officers cordoning off the crash site to officers from the various Plainclothes Sections coordinating statements of the numerous witnesses that were on site” explained Cpl. Sherrdean Turley, Media Relations Officer for Richmond Detachment.
Police expressed their gratitude to people that helped save others on the plane, saying they were "integral" to the event.
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