John Young, recovering in hospital from broken bones and burns, recalled Sunday his frantic efforts to save himself, a fellow passenger and the pilot after the float plane they were on crashed and caught fire in a remote area near Tofino.
Six people were on board the Air Nootka float plane when it crashed Friday morning shortly after the pilot had picked up five hikers.
Two people, the pilot and a passenger, were killed. Young and another passenger suffered major injuries and two hikers were able to walk away.
Young, speaking from his Victoria hospital bed, said he was sitting beside the pilot of the de Havilland Beaver float plane when it hit trees shortly after takeoff.
“We had just started going over land when a tree loomed up in front of us, and it must have been the right wing that hit it,” he said. “[The pilot] said: ‘Mayday, we’re going down,’ and I still thought: ‘This can’t be happening.’ ”
Young, a high school teacher from Nanaimo, had been hiking Hesquiat Pensinula Provincial Park, and was being picked up along with fellow hikers to go to Gold River.
It was foggy and drizzling as the plane took off.
He said the pilot had announced the plane would go across to Barchester Bay and from there up the outside coast of Hesquiat Pensinsula then Nootka Sound because of the low cloud ceiling.
But the plane crashed 60 kilometres from Tofino.
Young suffered several broken ribs, a broken sternum, third-degree burns to his left shin and a broken clavicle.
He said the plane appeared to hit several trees during the crash.
“I was jammed in, with my full seatbelt on. I couldn’t move. The guy behind me had been reaching for the emergency button, but then he stopped moving,” he said.
“Ten seconds after we hit the ground, there was a puff of flame in front of me. I couldn’t get the door open beside me ...
“I pulled and pulled and couldn’t get loose, then I stopped pulling and squirmed, and I got out of the plane.
“I could see that the pilot door swung open, so I started to crawl over there.”
Young got out of the plane and heard a woman screaming for help.
He went around the front of the plane and tried to pull her out. Unable to move her, he grabbed part of the plane and it came loose, enabling him to free her.
He then tried to free the pilot.
“The flames were getting bigger and he was on fire and it seemed like he died,” Young said.
Young and the injured woman were able to get away from the plane and huddled together for warmth, clearing brush out of the way.
The two other survivors, who had been seated at the back, located them shortly afterward. They were eventually picked up by a rescue helicopter.
The B.C. Coroners Service hasn’t yet released the names of the two people who died and Young said he wasn’t comfortable identifying them.
Transportation Safety Board investigators are hoping to get to the site today.
“Looks like the weather and all plans working to get us there by tomorrow morning,” Bill Yearwood, manager of air investigations, said Sunday.
Young said he’s just happy to be alive. “I had an accident last year where I broke six ribs and slid off a 14-metre cliff,” he said. “I’m even luckier this time.”
Additional reporting by Ian Austin, The Province
