Saltspring Island acupuncturist Lali Formaggia is recovering in Royal Jubilee Hospital from injuries sustained in an Aug. 16 float-plane crash northwest of Tofino, that killed the pilot and a passenger.
“Lali suffered a broken humerus bone [in her upper arm] and third-degree burns on both legs that are requiring extensive skin grafts,” said a posting Tuesday evening on sharespring.ca, a website that helps raise money for community causes.
“It will be a difficult and painful road to recovery,” said the posting by Adam Huber, who describes himself on the site as a close friend of Formaggia.
The site lists $7,000 as the amount it hopes will be raised in the next 30 days.
Mike Contardi, a founder of the fundraising platform, said in speaking with Huber he believes that Formaggia would be off work for “many months.”
Formaggia is “a self-employed alternative health practitioner on the island,” according to the site.
On ZoomInfo.com, she is described as having an education degree from the National University of Cuyo, Argentina, where she was born, as well as having completed her studies in Traditional Chinese Medicine from the Academy of Classical Oriental Sciences in Nelson from 1999-2003. Her special interests are treating severe and chronic pain and sports injuries and she also has nutritional training.
Formaggia was heading home, along with four other Alpine Club hikers, having spent several days backpacking on the remote Hesquiaht Trail.
The hikers were aboard a de Havilland Beaver plane that crashed minutes after take-off about 85 kilometres from Tofino.
Formaggia was seated behind the Air Nootka pilot, who perished in the crash. One other passenger, Charles Turner, aged 63, died Friday of his injuries. Turner was a carpenter and experienced mountain climber.
The plane was in flames when Formaggia was helped out of the plane by another passenger but had to wait several hours in the wilderness for rescue. The plane had been heading to Gold River, about 40 kilometres to the northeast.
Christine Fordham was one of two people who walked away from the crash. The other uninjured hiker has not been publicly identified.
Nanaimo school teacher John Young suffered broken ribs, clavicle and breastbone and burns and was also taken to hospital in Victoria. He said he was sitting beside the pilot when a tree loomed in front of them in the fog and drizzle. He has said he believes the plane’s right wing hit the tree a few minutes after take-off.
Transportation Safety Board investigator Bill Yearwood said the fire that started after the crash may have been a key factor in the deaths of Turner and the pilot.
He has previously recommended Transport Canada change its regulations to reduce the risk of fires after a crash.
A TSB safety study released in 2006 showed that in 128 of 521 plane crashes, fire or smoke inhalation contributed to the cause of death or serious injuries.
The charter flight crashed shortly after taking off from Hesquiat Lake, en route to Gold River.
“Most of these accidents were otherwise survivable,” the TSB said in its report looking into a similar crash on Oct. 27, 2011, in Richmond. In that crash, two pilots died in the subsequent fire.
