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Passengers got themselves out of plane after it crashed in Sechelt, killing pilot

Man, teenager and toddler made their way out of bush to neighbouring property
Wreckage
Crews work to stabilize the wreckage of a small plane that crashed near the Sechelt Airport July 5, killing the pilot.

Transportation Safety Board  investigators arrived Friday morning at the site of a fatal plane crash in Sechelt.

The male pilot of a small plane died July 5 after the plane crashed in a ravine near the top of Selma Park Road northwest of the Sechelt Airport at about 3 p.m., assistant fire chief Dwight Davison told the Coast Reporter late Thursday afternoon.

Witnesses said three people walked out of the bush near the intersection of Selma Park Road and Stamford Place after the crash and were met by police and ambulance crews.

At least one of them was a child, according to a resident who said the three people walked into her yard near the Suncoaster Trial and asked for help. She said they had scrapes and bruises but were not seriously injured. Another witness said the three who walked out were a man, a teenager and a three-year-old child. RCMP have since confirmed that the teenager was a girl and the toddler was a boy.

The intersection is located about a half-kilometre northwest of the end of the airport runway.

Davison said the passengers were able to “self-extricate” from the crashed plane.

“The fourth occupant is still in the plane and at this time we are basically transitioning from a rescue to a recovery mode,” Davison said from the scene Thursday.

About 5 p.m., the BC Corners Service joined Sunshine Coast Search and Rescue, Sechelt Fire Department and RCMP personnel who were still on scene and the pilot's body was recovered from the wreckage late Thursday evening.

No fire was reported at the crash site but the single-engine Piper Cherokee was leaking small amounts of fuel, Davison said. “It crashed into a heavily timbered area and is on a side hill, wedged into a couple of trees at this time,” he added.

All access to the plane had been through low-angle rope rescue. Davison said the portside wing is pointed down and the plane is sitting precariously on a side bank. “We’re working to stabilize the airplane so it doesn’t move,” he said.

RCMP said the four people on the plane were members of the same family and the plane had just taken off for a sightseeing flight when it lost power. Acting detachment commander, Sgt. Mike Hacker, said Friday that the pilot’s next-of-kin had been notified. The family has ties to the Sunshine Coast and the pilot was well known in the local aviation community, Hacker said.

“It’s affecting that segment of the community particularly hard,” he said, offering condolences to the family and the pilot’s colleagues.

Hacker also said RCMP involvement in the investigation has now wrapped up, and the file has been turned over to the TSB. 

The public was still being asked to avoid the area as of noon Friday. It will be up to the TSB and the plane owner’s insurance company to decide when the wreckage will be removed.

Go the Coast Reporter for more news about the Sunshine Coast.