Flying in bad weather blamed for B.C. crash

A decision to fly in bad weather is being blamed for a 2008 seaplane crash off the West Coast of B.C. that killed seven people, according to a report released by the Transportation Safety Board (TSB).

Only one person survived when the amphibious Grumman Goose crashed into a wooded area on the southern section of Thormanby Island, off B.C.'s Sunshine Coast, on Nov. 16, 2008.

The Pacific Coastal Airlines plane was flying in such poor weather that the pilot did not see Thormanby Island until seconds before the crash, investigators said Wednesday in Vancouver.

TSB investigator Travis Shelongosky said Pacific Coastal spoke to pilot Peter McLeod three times about concerns about his decision-making in marginal conditions.

"The last meeting, about three months prior to the accident, was held because management was concerned that he was completing trips in what other pilots considered adverse wind and weather conditions," he said.

But the TSB says there was no single cause for the crash and instead blamed a series of factors, including pressure from customers to fly and incorrect weather information provided by a lighthouse keeper who might have led the pilot to believe conditions would improve en route.

'He was completing trips in what other pilots considered adverse wind and weather conditions.' —Travis Shelongosky Transportation Safety Board investigator

The TSB also said the pilot relied too heavily on his GPS, a problem throughout the industry that the agency said is putting pilots and passengers at risk.

"There are some hard lessons that need to be learned and relearned in aviation, and this is one of them," TSB investigator Bill Yearwood said.

Pilots operating under what are called visual flight rules "must be able to see the ground below and ahead of them at all times," Yearwood said.

"It's almost impossible to avoid obstacles and rising ground when clouds are low, the visibility is poor, and you're flying at twice the speed of cars on the highway," he said.

"Competition is strong, and customers can put pressure on companies to complete flights. We need to see better decisions from companies and pilots to prevent these kinds of accidents."

Shelongosky also took aim at Transport Canada for not doing enough to enforce what are called visual flight rules.

"It doesn't do any good to have a rule of any kind if no one enforces it," he said. "Whether it's a speed limit or anything else."

Company has made changes

Pacific Coastal Airlines vice-president Spencer Smith said the company doesn't challenge any findings in the TSB report and has made a number of changes to its policies since the crash.

Company pilots flying under visual flight rules no longer make the decision on whether to fly in marginal weather alone. A dispatcher now helps make the decision, said Smith.

He also said it was not unusual for the company to review the pilot's decision-making on a regular basis.

"It's not unusual to have those conversations with any employee. There's always coaching going on with employees in relation to performance and different things," he said.

"Our management was certainly, as the report states, comfortable with the pilot's responses and reactions to that. Had it been something extremely egregious I'm sure we would have taken different action," he said.

At the time of the crash, Smith said the veteran pilot had only been with the company for about eight months but had about 12,000 flying hours, about half which were logged on similar aircraft on the coast of B.C. and around the world.

It was Pacific Coastal's second fatal crash in less than four months. In August 2008, another Grumman Goose belonging to the airline crashed on Vancouver Island, killing five people.

Sole survivor escaped crash

Only one person survived when the aircraft crashed into a steeply wooded area on the southern section of Thormanby Island and burst into flames.

The 35-year-old man suffered burns and gashes to his face, hands and chest but was able to walk down a creek bed until he reached a beach where he was spotted by the Canadian Coast Guard and taken to hospital.

The passengers aboard the chartered aircraft were employees of the construction company Peter Kiewit Sons who were on their way to the Toba Valley to work on a run-of-river power project for Plutonic Power.

At the time of the crash, the airline said the pilot was experienced and there was no distress signal sent before the plane went down.