November 17, 2008

Kiewit and Finning Canada workers die in Thormanby Island plane crash

Richard Gilbert

Staff Writer

VANCOUVER

Family members of some of the six construction workers who died in a plane crash were gathering Monday in small church on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast as recovery teams battled tough terrain and harsh weather to reach the crash site.

Five of the deceased workers were employed by Peter Kiewit Sons’, Inc., the other was an employee of Finning Canada. They were on a regularly scheduled flight delivering personnel and supplies to the East Toba River/Montrose Creek run-of-river power project when the plane went down on an island north of Powell River, B.C.

“We have suffered other losses in our 125-year history,” said Kent Vrisham, spokesperson for Kiewit. “In terms of the biggest single loss, this is the biggest ever.”

Kiewit has suspended all work on the Plutonic Power project. “This tragedy has struck all of us at Kiewit deeply.

“Our only focus now is on the family and friends of our workers,” Vrisham said Monday afternoon during a press conference in Sechelt.

The pilot was also killed in the crash while one passenger survived.

The 35-year old survivor, badly burned and cut, told his rescuers he managed to scramble away from the crash site as the wreckage exploded behind him.

The nine-passenger Pacific Coastal Airlines plane left Vancouver airport Sunday morning heading for the 297-man work camp in the Toba Valley.

Sechelt RCMP received a call from a resident of Thormanby Island who heard what he believed to be a plane crash.

“Shortly after this call, the detachment received a call from Pacific Coastal Air advising that a Grumman Goose carrying seven passengers and a pilot were overdue at the air strip,” said Cpl Peter Thiessen, RCMP media relations officer.

Within the hour, a search and rescue operation was launched.

A Coast Guard auxiliary crew in a Zodiac saw the survivor emerge from thick brush onto the beach wrapped in a yellow sheet. He was airlifted to Half Moon Bay for treatment and admitted to St. Mary's Hospital in Sechelt before being transferred to Vancouver General Hospital where he is reported in stable condition.

The identities of the victims and the survivor were not released prior to press time Monday.

Early Monday morning, a search team located the wreckage of the Second World War-vintage Grumman Goose amphibious aircraft on Thormanby Island.

“They are reporting significant debris in the area,” Cpl Thiessen said, confirming there were no other survivors. Access to the crash site could only be gained by all terrain vehicles and by foot due to the dense bush and bad weather.

Transportation Safety Board investigators and a police forensic unit are expected to be airlifted into the site on Tuesday.

This is the second crash for Pacific Coastal Airlines in four months. In August, the small, regional airline lost another plane that went down in rugged terrain on Vancouver Island, killing five.

The East Toba River/Montrose Creek run-of-river power is a $660 million, 196 MW power project that has been under construction since July 2007.

With files from DCN News Services.

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