Firefighters have extinguished the flames and a pilot of an ultralight plane has been sent to hospital with serious injuries after a fiery crash at an airfield in Surrey, B.C. on Friday afternoon.
Two ambulances were called to the aviation field on 152 Street south of Surrey Lake at 1:18 p.m., according to BC Emergency Health Services.
Paramedics brought a single patient to the hospital in “serious condition.”
Witness Jeff Rochon said the pilot was conducting a test flight on the aircraft he had been working on.
“He managed to get it into the air, 300 or 400 feet and apparently the engine started to miss. He tried to turn back to the field and fell short to where you see the wreckage in the background,” he told Global News.
“Immediately, it burst into flames. He had some difficulty getting out and fire broke out, and kind of burned his legs somewhat. He was conscious and walking.”
The all-aluminum ultralight — which was badly damaged — also caught fire, sparking a grass fire. Surrey fire crews flooded the scene on Friday afternoon, attempting to douse the flames and and managed to snuff them out by mid evening.
Thick smoke could be seen blowing over the field next to a small, scorched white aircraft.
Rochon said he and a friend had been in a hangar at the other end of the aviation field when they saw the plane go down and rushed to help.
“He got to (the pilot) quickly, got across the ditch and managed to help him walk across the ditch,” Rochon described, adding that the pilot was “mad as a hornet.”
Rochon said his companion brought the pilot to a shaded area, where he waited for paramedics.
Surrey RCMP said the cause of the initial plane fire remains unclear.
The street between 72nd Avenue and 68th Avenue was closed in both directions but has since reopened to traffic.
The federal Transportation Safety Board has deployed a crew to investigate the accident, involving a “privately registered Zenair CH701.”
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