The wreckage of a single-engine airplane that crashed on Highway 97 Tuesday has been moved to a secure compound in Osoyoos. The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) says two of their investigators are on site gathering facts and “perishable evidence.”
“They will possibly take the engine out of the remaining wreckage and bring it back here so we can take it apart and analyze it to see if there was any catastrophic failures within the engine itself,” says TSB spokesperson Bill Yearwood.
Surrey resident Todd Lewendon, 46, was flying solo en route to Boundary Bay Airport in Delta when his Beechcraft Bonanza A36 lost power shortly after takeoff from the Oliver Municipal Airport around 5:00 p.m. He was able to free himself from the wreckage, but suffered serious burns and was airlifted to hospital in Vancouver.
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Lewendon almost didn’t take to the skies Tuesday because of forest fire smoke across the southern part of the province.
Yearwood says Lewendon told a witness there was a power loss and he was doing an emergency landing.
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“Obviously the power loss caused the accident, at that low level, but what we have to do is try and find out what caused the power loss,” says Yearwood.
The TSB will also be trying to figure out what caused a the plane to catch fire after it crashed.
“The pilots injuries are all related to the fire and we are keen to find out what triggered that fire,” says Yearwood.
Yearwood says the TSB would like to eventually interview Lewendon. However, they are waiting to speak with him as he is currently being treated in a burn unit.
– with files from The Canadian Press and Yuliya Talmazan
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