The pilot killed in an Air Nootka crash last week, 66-year-old Grant Clifford Howatt of Ladysmith, was a former owner of the float-plane company.
Howatt, whose identity was confirmed Friday by the B.C. Coroners Service, owned Air Nootka with his wife from 1994 to 2006.
He was at the controls of an Air Nootka de Havilland Beaver when it left Hesquiat Lake the morning of Aug. 16 for Gold River, about 40 kilometres away.
The plane went down minutes after takeoff.
The crash also claimed the life of 63-year-old Charles Henry Turner of Courtenay. Four other people aboard the plane survived the crash. Two were able to walk away from the scene, while two suffered broken bones and burns.
The passengers on the plane were hikers who had been backpacking on the remote Hesquiat Trail.
Gold River Mayor Craig Anderson said he was shocked to learn that Howatt died in the crash. Anderson had flown several times with the pilot, who he said was “very well known and very liked.”
Howatt was pretty quiet on the ground but, in the air, he was always talking, Anderson said.
“He was almost like a tour guide once he was out there,” he said, adding that the pilot was known to take tiny detours to show passengers a particularly pretty sight.
In a statement on the Air Nootka website, the company expressed its sadness at Howatt’s death.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Grant’s family, as well as the other families affected by this tragedy,” the statement said.
Howatt was described as a good friend and colleague and “a very knowledgeable and skilled pilot” who loved what he did.
“The thousands of passengers who had the privilege of flying with him knew him for his warm smile and professional manner,” the statement said.
“Daily we receive kind words and encouragement from the many people he had touched over his life in this area and beyond.”
Howatt was an experienced pilot with more than 16,000 accident-free flying hours, the company said.
The investigation of the crash is continuing and includes the coroners service, the Transportation Safety Board and WorkSafe B.C.
Wreckage from the plane has been transported to Campbell River for analysis.
— With a file from Katherine Dedyna
