KELOWNA, B.C. – The cause of a harrowing plane crash near Kelowna last month remains undetermined, but investigators have found there was enough fuel to complete the journey as planned.
The plane had left Boise, Idaho on May 31 en route to Kelowna. It had begun the trip back to Canada from Arizona.
Both engines lost power about 10 minutes before the pilot was scheduled to land at the Kelowna airport.
Transportation Safety Board investigator Bill Yearwood said there was 18 gallons of fuel on board when the engines lost power. Enough, he said, for the entire journey to Kelowna.
Yearwood suggested Global News should look for possible answers about the crash in the owner’s manual of the Commander 700 where he said it states the plane engines may die while 18 gallons remains in the tanks under “special circumstances.”
Pilot Brent Miskuski, who remains puzzled why his plane engines died almost simultaneously, presented the owner’s manual to Global News for inspection when he heard Yearwood’s assertion.
The manual states,
“Two electrically operated, continuous duty fuel transfer pumps ensure a constant supply of fuel to the fuel collector during low fuel quantity operations…. Transfer pumps are OFF for normal operation and are turned ON when the LO FUEL annunciator illuminates. With transfer pumps in operations, unusable fuel quantity is one gallon (6 pounds) per wing… Unusable fuel quantities increases to 8.5 gallons (51 pounds) per wing when transfer pumps are inoperative.”
Miskuski said investigators found the transfer pumps were operational at the time of the crash.
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Yearwood confirmed pilot error and mechanical failure have been ruled out as has fuel contamination.
He said the investigation has not been closed but recommendations are unlikely because information he believes is related to the crash can be found in the owner’s manual.
Miskuski disputes the fuel contamination assertion by Yearwood, and told Global News an engineer working on the investigation has found signs of fuel contamination.
The pilot says Transport Canada is now leading the investigation.
“For (the engines) to go out simultaneously, within seconds apart, it tells me there’s something more to the story,” said Miskuski, who owns a second identical plane to the one that crashed.
“I’m a little gun-shy to jump into (the other plane) not knowing what the cause was,” he said.
He is hoping for answers soon but also vows to return to the skies.
“I’ve flown all across Canada in my other planes,” said Miskuski. “I’ve been down to Central America, all over, even in single engine planes and it doesn’t bother me at all.”
The crashed plane was manufactured in 1980, according to Miskuski, and may not be worth salvaging.
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