Three people were killed in a float plane crash on West Cracroft Island off the northeastern tip of Vancouver Island Thursday.
The Cessna 185 crashed on a wooded hillside about 20 metres from Potts Lagoon at 11:45 a.m., RCMP media relations Cpl. Darren Lagan said.
The RCMP said the plane departed from the Port McNeill area, about 45 kilometres west of the crash site. Investigators are still trying to determine where the plane was headed.
The charter plane was owned by Air Cab, a company based in Coal Harbour.
Lagan said officials were alerted to the crash by a 911 call handled by the Rescue Coordination Centre in Victoria. He said the call may have originated from a boat in the area.
“It’s not a very populated place, but we did have some assistance from a commercial shrimp boat and crew that were nearby,” Lagan said. “They did go to the crash scene very quickly afterwards and relayed a lot crucial information to [the Rescue Coordination Centre], so that was a big help.
“Early on, we knew that it was a fatal just based on the information coming in.”
The 442 Transport and Rescue Squadron with the Royal Canadian Air Force out of 19 Wing Comox sent a Buffalo Search and Rescue plane and a Cormorant helicopter to the scene.
The RCMP dispatched its boat from Alert Bay.
“Unfortunately, there were no survivors when we got there and no indication that there were survivors at the actual time of the crash,” Lagan said. “It does appear that they all perished at the point of the crash.”
The victims were adults. Their names have not been released while police work to notify next of kin.
Investigators from the B.C. Coroners Service and the Transportation Safety Board are expected to arrive at the scene on Friday.
He said it’s too early to say if weather was a factor in the crash.
“They had a ceiling of 1,000 feet at the time,” he said. “Fog, though, is apparently quite difficult to determine unless you’re actually on the ground, so witnesses will be able to help with that.
“Fog according to [the Rescue Coordination Centre] doesn’t always show up, and it comes and goes; it’s there one minute and gone the next.”
Spencer Smith, vice president with Pacific Coastal Airlines, said foggy conditions in the last few days have created poor visibility and weather challenges for float plane operators across the coastal region.
“The fog we’ve been experiencing in our area has been pretty extensive,” Smith said. “There are weather conditions that aren’t conducive to flying right now in some coastal areas. That being said, there are planes out there flying; it depends on where you’re heading.”
— with a file from Katie DeRosa
