VANCOUVER – Drunken passengers likely interfered with a pilot just moments before his float plane crashed off Vancouver Island’s west coast last year and killed all four people on board, says a recently released report.
Damon York, the pilot for Atleo River Air Service, and passengers Katrina English, Edward Sam and Samantha Mattersdorfer died when the Cessna 185F they were in crashed just northwest of Tofino, B.C., on May 29, 2010.
Bill Yearwood, the lead investigator on the crash for the Transportation Safety Board, said the report, which was released publicly this week, ruled out mechanical or environmental factors or even a shift in the plane’s load.
Yearwood said the pilot was not incapacitated because of medical problems and was not suicidal.
Investigators learned, however, that the pilot was not wearing a shoulder strap and his seat had no locking mechanism. They concluded the crash was likely caused by a passenger sitting behind the pilot pushing the pilot’s seat forward, forcing the pilot to lose control.
“We found that if the pilot in front was not expecting it, and you pushed him forward, and their elbows bent, they didn’t have the strength to overcome the push from a leg that’s extended,” said Yearwood.
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“That was the last remaining possibility.”
The pilot suffered severe injuries to his forehead and a broken right wrist, and the passenger seated directly behind him suffered two broken ankles, said the report.
Except for the front passenger, who died on impact, everyone on board died as a result of drowning and the contributing factor of blunt-force.
The report said there was no sign of a strike to the back of the pilot’s head.
Yearwood confirmed nobody really knows what happened before the crash, because the plane was not equipped with cockpit voice or flight-data recorders.
Ahousaht First Nation band leaders were not available to comment Thursday, nor was anyone from Atleo River Air Service Ltd.
According to the report, toxicology tests showed all three passengers were highly intoxicated and were so drunk that they likely didn’t realize the seriousness of the situation in time to allow the pilot to regain control of the plane.
Before the flight, they were coherent, able to walk and even argue about the price of the charter.
The TSB report noted a local water-taxi operator also refused them service earlier in the day.
The report said the pilot could have refused service if he had any safety concerns.
Yearwood said neither life-jackets nor better emergency exits would have provided any help to the passengers or pilot.
“The occupants … received severe-enough impact injuries that emergency exits and life-jackets, those issues that have recently been in the media, would not have improved the situation here,” he said, referring to the ongoing debate over float plane safety that has been fuelled by several recent crashes.
“They would not have had the opportunity to use any of those.”
Transportation officials presented copies of the report to Ahousaht band elders and its chief, as well as the family members of the pilot and passengers, before releasing it to the public.
Yearwood said transportation officials have also offered to talk about the investigation with band leaders.
He said the investigation is now complete, unless new information is received.
The report made no recommendations.
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