The wreckage of a float plane that crashed off Saturna Island on Sunday, killing six of eight people on board, has been hauled up from the ocean floor and is likely to undergo weeks of detailed inspection.

The plane was lifted from the water by a crane and placed on a barge yesterday. Upon preliminary inspection, there was “nothing remarkable” about the crumpled single-engine de Havilland Beaver aircraft, once used in a movie starring Harrison Ford and overhauled last year.

Both pontoons were chopped off, one wing was broken off and the other was damaged.

“It’s what you would expect from an aircraft hitting the water with high impact,” said Bill Yearwood, manager of aviation for Transportation Safety Board.

Investigators will try to uncover what caused the float plane to nose-dive into the ocean at 4:12 p.m. Sunday, just moments after takeoff from Lyall Harbour, en route to Vancouver. The Seair Seaplanes aircraft was on a regularly scheduled flight, and already had picked up passengers on Mayne and Pender islands.

The plane was found at a depth of about 11 metres. Two doors were open and many personal items on board, Yearwood said.

The plane is now in pieces and was sent via the barge to a federal warehouse in Richmond, Yearwood said.

It may take only weeks for the inspection to be completed, but written reports might not be released for a year or more. However, if any mechanical defect is found, a technical-service bulletin will be issued immediately.

Since there was no black box on the small plane, the pilot’s insights will be critical to investigators, Yearwood said.

The male pilot is one of two people who survived the crash. He, and a passenger, Barbara Glenn, 56, are in stable condition in Victoria General Hospital.

The two have stated they don’t wish to talk publicly about the event at this time, said Shannon Marshall, spokeswoman for the Vancouver Island Health Authority. The pilot has not been identified.

Glenn’s husband, Tom, 60, was killed in the crash. The couple from White Rock were on their way home after visiting Barbara’s sister for the weekend.

“Their family and friends are devastated,” said Jacqueline Twa, a longtime friend of the couple. “Barbara is really seriously injured,” she said, adding she’s suffering from a spinal fracture and other injuries.

The Glenns were high- school sweethearts and had been married nearly 40 years, Twa said.

“They were very much in love.”

Also killed in the crash were Kerry Margaret Morrissey, 41, and her daughter, Sarah Grace Morrissey, six months, both of Vancouver; Richard Bruce Haskitt, 49, and Cindy Schafer, 44, both of Huntington Beach, Calif.; and Catherine White-Holman, 55, of Vancouver.

Yesterday, White-Holman was praised as a pioneer in Vancouver’s downtown neighbourhoods, where she helped bring health services to the most marginalized people in the city.

“Catherine was a remarkable person,” said longtime colleague Trevor Corneil, a physician at Three Bridges Community Health Centre, where White-Holman was a founding staff member.

Openly lesbian, White-Holman was a strong advocate for her clients at the clinic and an activist for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. She is survived by her spouse, Shaira Holman. They had been married for two years.

Sunday’s incident was the fourth crash of a Seair aircraft over the past 13 years in B.C. and the first involving deaths.

The Beaver’s 62 years of Canadian aviation history means investigators are very familiar with the plane’s operation. “They”re still the main workhorse on the West Coast,” Yearwood confirmed.

Yearwood said it appears that the 1957 aircraft involved in the crash was within its legal load limits, and that the weather conditions, including wind and visibility, were not out of the ordinary for the B.C. coast at this time of the year.

Tim Parker, a partner at Pat Bay Air, which operates near the Victoria International Airport, has flown float planes for 15 years. He said the de Havilland Beaver is a reliable craft.

“I have no knowledge of anything wrong with the Beaver at all. I wouldn’t have any qualms about telling anyone to fly in one,” Parker said.

He said the wreckage will have clues for investigators.

“The point to remember is the impact on a small plane is a lot less than a big jet, so they don’t fragment into small pieces. There is usually some form of evidence to look at,” Parker said.

That leaves a wealth of markers for investigators to examine, such as the instrument needles leaving marks when they click against the glass on impact. These are called “witness marks.” Such marks will show the air speed and vertical speed.

“A black box isn’t going to add much to that,” Parker said.

— With files from Canwest News Service and Joanne Hatherly

ceharnett@tc.canwest.com