VANCOUVER — Commercial float-plane operators of all sizes say they are now committed to implementing a federal transportation safety-board recommendation that passengers wear life vests during flights.
“The intention from all the operators is to absolutely have the passengers wear them,” Lyle Soetaert, spokesman for the fledgling Floatplane Operators Association, said in an interview on Monday.
“We’re just trying to find out how to make it comfortable for the passengers and make it effective.
“We want it to be an easy, natural, don’t-even-think-about-it thing to do.”
The announcement was immediately welcomed by Patrick Morrissey, who lost his wife, Dr. Kerry (Telford) Morrissey, and their six-month-old daughter, Sarah, in the Nov. 29, 2009, crash of a Seair Seaplanes Beaver airplane off Saturna Island.
Until now, the major operators had been lukewarm at best to the safety-board recommendation, he observed.
“Boy, that’s a turnaround….” he said.
“That’s great. I’m glad to hear they’re moving in this direction.”
Bill Yearwood, regional manager of the safety board, termed the industry decision “excellent” and said he is encouraged that the B.C. operators are voluntarily going beyond what Transport Canada requires.
But, he said, there remains a need for Transport Canada to mandate minimum national standards to ensure that commercial float-plane operators from coast to coast are also ensuring their passengers wear life vests.
Transport Canada spokeswoman Mélanie Quesnel said in Ottawa that the department “accepts the intent” of the safety board’s findings in that crash, but argued the “issues related to the implementation of these recommendations are complex.”
The department will deliver its official response to the recommendations on June 14.
Smaller float-plane operators on the B.C. coast are not waiting for Transport Canada or even larger companies to take the lead, and are already distributing life vests to passengers to be worn during flights.
At least five coastal operators – Air Cab, Atleo River Air Service, Bella Coola Air, Pacific Eagle Aviation, and WestCoast Wild Adventures – have implemented the policy based on the March 17 recommendation of the federal transportation safety board into the Seair Seaplanes crash off Saturna.
In most float planes, the mandatory life vests are folded in a pouch under the seat, where there is little or no chance of passengers grabbing them in the panic that follows a sudden crash in water, raising the need for passengers to be wearing life vests that can be inflated once they are outside the aircraft.
Soetaert, operations manager for West Coast Air (owned by Harbour Air), said an investigation by his association has determined there are two types of life vests on the market – a horse-collar style from Mustang Survival, and a belt pack from Eastern Aero Marine – that are suitable replacements for the existing life vests.
He said members will be notified of these options this week, paving the way for mandatory wearing of life vests by passengers. Exactly how the new life vests are distributed remains under study, he said, and could range from passengers receiving them in the terminal, before boarding, or having them available at the seat.
“You could have a belt pack, and affix that to the aircraft with a quick-release mechanism, so the passenger can sit down, strap the belt pack to themselves, then put the seat belt on,” said Soetaert, noting there must be an “inspection cycle” to ensure they are kept in working condition.
He added that concerns remain that passengers could accidentally inflate the life vests inside the aircraft and potentially trap themselves and that “we’re working with the manufacturers and investigating methods of implementation to reduce this risk.”
All five smaller operators that have adopted the safety board’s recommendation are members of the 703 West Coast Seaplane Association, which tends to represent smaller operators.
“It only makes sense,” said Louis Rouleau, owner of WestCoast Wild Adventures in Ucluelet. “The statistics are there. Back in the day, we didn’t wear seat belts until it was proved they saved lives.”
Joel Eilertsen, owner of Air Cab at Coal Harbour on northern Vancouver Island, added that the Mustang life vests used on his float planes have been well received by his customers.
In the Seair Seaplanes crash, six passengers who could not escape the sinking airplane died, while the pilot and one other passenger escaped with serious injuries and without life vests.
The two survivors clung to two boat bumpers that broke free from the sinking airplane and hung on in the frigid waters of Lyall Harbour until help arrived.
In Canada, between 1989 and 2010, 76 people died in 109 float-plane crashes on water, the safety board said.
In just one accident in 2005, the pilot and four passengers drowned after they escaped an MJM Air crash off Quadra Island. None grabbed a life vest before exiting the airplane.
The safety board also recommended that float planes should be fitted with easily opened emergency exits such as pop-out windows, which allow passengers to escape quickly after a crash in water.
Viking Air of Sidney, the “type certificate holder” for the Beaver, has since the Saturna crash produced emergency pop-out windows and improved door-latch kits, which are being widely adopted by industry.
The Sun is among six nominees for the annual Michener Award for “meritorious public-service journalism” for Broken Wings, a six-part series on commercial float-plane safety issues initiated by the Saturna crash.
The recipient of the award will be announced June 14 – the same day Transport Canada announces its decision on mandatory life vests – in a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. The award is named after Roland Michener, who served as Governor-General of Canada from 1967 to 1974.
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