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UPDATE: Pilot in fatal Gabriola plane crash was experienced flight instructor, friend says

The pilot of a small private plane that crashed in a wooded area of Gabriola Island on Tuesday, killing multiple people, has been identified as Alex Bahlsen, an experienced aviator and flight instructor.
plane crash
Residents look on as an RCMP vehicle blocks a road near the the scene of a small plane crash on Gabriola Island, B.C., Wednesday, Dec.11, 2019. The BC Coroners Service and police have confirmed multiple fatalities in a plane crash off the east coast of Vancouver Island.

The pilot of a small private plane that crashed in a wooded area of Gabriola Island on Tuesday, killing multiple people, has been identified as Alex Bahlsen, an experienced aviator and flight instructor.

Bahlsen, 61, who recently moved with his wife to Mill Bay from Calgary, crashed on the northwest corner of the Gulf Island, east of Nanaimo.

Friend Rasmus Rydstrøm-Poulsen, who was at home in Calgary on Wednesday caring for a newborn as he tried to come to grips with his friend’s death, said he suspected it was a technical problem and not pilot error that brought the plane down. “He was a very, very, extremely capable flight instructor,” said Rydstrøm-Poulsen.

Bahlsen, who was originally from Germany, flew small aircraft, including float planes and helicopters, and owned his own flight school and airport in Cayley, Alta., Rydstrøm-Poulse said — his business is called A.J. Flying Ranch.

Rydstrøm-Poulsen said he has flown with Bahlsen many times and his friend was known to fly frequently.

“This is the last thing I was expecting,” said Rydstrøm-Poulsen, noting Bahlsen has two adult daughters and is a grandfather. “He was incredible. He was absolutely wonderful. He was an adventure of a person. This is a complete shock.”

Multiple people are believed to have died when the small twin-engine propeller aircraft piloted by Bahlsen crashed in what one witness described as a “huge explosion” on Gabriola Island Tuesday night.

B.C. RCMP spokesman Cpl. Chris Manseau said no one survived when the plane crashed on the northwest corner of the island in a residential area, on Decourcy Drive, close to Twin Beaches.

It’s “horrible” and tragic for the families of the deceased and for nearby residents who saw the plane crash, Manseau said.

The B.C. Coroners Service said reports of a possible plane crash came in to first responders, including B.C. Emergency Health Services and Gabriola RCMP, just after 6 p.m. The B.C. Coroners Service was notified once first responders reported fatalities. The Transportation Safety Board was also notified.

The crash left a “significant debris field,” the coroners service said.

Gabriola resident Dave Holme said he saw the plane hurtle toward the ground and ran to look for survivors. “I saw the plane spiralling toward the ground. The engines were going … but they didn’t sound normal,” Holme said Wednesday. “About five houses down from us, I saw it nose-dive into the ground, and then the explosion was just immense … all the houses completely shook.”

Holme said he ran into the bushes at the crash site and yelled to see if anyone was alive and able to respond.

“I was probably within, I’d have to say, five feet of the fuselage … and just fire – all around me, the ground was literally on fire.

“I saw the rear end of the plane sticking out of the ground. … I couldn’t see any wings. Part of the motor was on one part of the property and the other part of the motor was over on the other side of the property. It hit with such force, it just disintegrated the plane.”

The RCMP, Transportation Safety Board (TSB) investigators and the B.C. Coroners Service special investigations unit are probing the crash. Alexandre Desjardins, spokesman for Transport Canada, said the federal transportation body has a “minister’s observer” at the crash site.

TSB has not revealed how many passengers were listed on the plane’s manifest and the scheduled departure and arrival destinations.

Andy Watson of the B.C. Coroners Service said identifying the dead could involve matching multiple pieces of information, including the plane’s manifest, identification found at the scene and identification of the human remains. To ensure accuracy, it could be a slow process, he said.

“That is something we will release as soon as we’re confident in that information,” he said. “We’re working on it, but we’re going to wait until we’re 100 per cent confident in our information before we release that.”

Gabriola resident Jean Wyenberg said it was dark and foggy when the deadly crash occurred.

“How terrifying that must have been to be in that plane and realize what was about to happen,” she said. “And it must have been horrifying for those who saw it.”

Wyenberg said she had the television on when she heard a loud explosion that sounded “like nothing I’ve ever heard before. It was loud. It was pretty scary. You just don’t know what it is. I thought, ‘OK I’m still here, so what was it?’”

Wyenberg called 911, then stepped outside her house. She said she helped direct emergency vehicles to the site off Decourcy Drive, but didn’t go into the crash scene because she didn’t want to get in the way of emergency responders.

Gabriola resident Blair Mann lives near the crash site and said the plane went down in a small wooded park. “Miraculously, it missed all the homes, the houses,” said Mann, who was watching the evening news when multiple explosions shook his house.

B.C. Emergency Health Services said two ambulances stationed on the island were dispatched to the scene and five others joined them by ferry.

Astrid Braunschmidt, manager of corporate communications for B.C. Ferries, said five ambulances were transported to Gabriola Island Tuesday night.

Bette Lou Hagen, who lives in the area of the crash, said she was reading a novel when she heard “a loud sonic boom or something. I heard a loud engine — it didn’t sound like a car engine — but it was really shaking my house and then I heard a loud crash and then I don’t how much later it was I heard an explosion,” she said.

She went outside but could not see much because the area has a lot of trees. She called the police.

The plane crashed about 50 metres from her backyard, Hagen said. “It was pretty awful. I’m still shaking.”

— With files from Richard Watts and The Canadian Press