Chopper crew didn't know mariners were near death
Survival suits were full of water, major says
A military commander says a helicopter search team would have responded differently to a tug sinking last week if they had known two men were so close to death.
The tug Check-Mate III sank quickly north of Baccalieu Island, near the mouth of Trinity Bay, in eastern Newfoundland, leading to the deaths of its two crew.
Larry Parsons, 69, and Christopher Wade Oram, 32, were dead by the time they were pulled out of the water by the crew of the Canadian Coast Guard vessel George R. Pearkes.
Before the vessel arrived, a search team aboard a Cormorant helicopter hovered above the scene for 14 minutes.
That wait has drawn criticism from family members, who don't understand why the helicopter didn't send down search and rescue technicians immediately.
Maj. John Van Oosten, who runs the search and rescue program in Atlantic Canada, said the Cormorant crew that had been dispatched from Gander could see Parsons and Oram in two-metre swells when they arrived.
"They were moving around, at least one of them was," said Van Oosten, who said the crew decided that the best course of action was to wait for the nearby George R. Pearkes to arrive.
Van Oosten told CBC News that what the Cormorant crew did not know is that the men's survival suits were full of water.
When a fast-rescue craft from the Pearkes arrived on the scene, both men were dead.
"If they thought they were going to die in the 15 minutes that it was going to take, then yes, they would have hoisted them right away," he said.
Van Oosten said the coast guard staff had trouble getting the men into the fast-rescue craft, because of the extra weight from the water-filled suits.
Investigation launched
He said that hoisting the men into the helicopter while their suits were full of water might have taken more than 14 minutes, and could even have killed them.
Meanwhile, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada has started an investigation into the sinking, although investigators will have a challenge completing it.
With the vessel sunk and the crew members deceased, investigators are piecing together what they can. Investigators in Halifax have started collecting information through phone interviews.
The Check-Mate III, built in 1987, was a 12-metre-long pilot boat. It was certified as seaworthy last November.
It had been moored for the last few years in Wesleyville. Parsons and Oram were heading to St. John's, where the tug was then to head to a new owner in Nova Scotia.