“Confident” West Vancouver man pilot of tragic Okanagan plane crash

The pilot in charge of floatplane that crashed and burst into flames yesterday evening in the Okanagan, killing him and two other people, was remembered today by friends as an experienced flyer who enjoyed taking family and friends into the skies.

Colin Moyes, a West Vancouver man in his early 50s, was piloting his de Havilland Beaver, which he bought about six months ago, when it slammed into a steep, wooded hillside along Highway 97C about 30 km west of Okanagan Lake and caught fire.

“Ever since he bought that airplane you just couldn’t wipe the smile off his face,” said Dale Floyd, who works out of Pitt Meadows Airport at Coast Dog Aviation and had been friends with Moyes for about three years. “It was a huge passion of his, he flew every chance he could get.

“He was just one of those guys who was everybody’s friend.”

Floyd, a former pilot, said Moyes was a “phenomenal” pilot and seemed very confident when the two went up in the Beaver a couple weeks ago.

He was also a conscientious family man who lived to share his passion for flight with friends and family Floyd said. Moyes had flown the popular return route from Pitt Meadows to Kelowna several times Floyd said, but it is unknown who else was killed when the plane crashed last night and burst into flames.

Five people were initially thought to be on the plane before new details emerged about the passenger list, Transportation Safety Board spokesman Bill Yearwood said Monday.

“There were four on board when they left Pitt Meadows. It had originally planned to have five, but plans changed, and one was left in Kelowna, so three were on the return flight.

“We know the aircraft was returning (to Pitt Meadows) and it was close to the summit of the pass but there is no information to help us, at this point, as to what the pilot was experiencing.”

The coroner and three TSB inspectors were due to arrive at the crash site on Monday, and Yearwood said there was little information about the victims or the aircraft.

He said they would analyze the wreckage and the damage to nearby trees to determine if the aircraft had power when it hit the ground.

“We just know that it was privately registered. We don’t know who was onboard the aircraft, even if the owner was onboard.”

A final report on what could have caused the crash will not be released for several months.

Stunned motorists on the Okanagan Connector highway phoned 911 after they saw the single-engine de Havilland Beaver crash into the trees around 6:45 p.m. about 30 metres from the side of the highway near the closed Brenda Mine.

“When I came around the corner and saw the plane in the air, I thought, ‘Whoa! That’s low, by the tree line,’ and then it just disappeared,” said eyewitness Chris Koebel.

Penticton resident Koebel, a 33-year-old safety officer with a Burnaby-based mining company, was returning home from a first aid course in Kamloops when he saw the plane approaching through his front windshield. Obscured by the setting sun, he thought the plane might have pulled up, but as he turned a corner, smoke appeared in his rear-view mirror.

He pulled over, called 911, and then raced forward looking for a break in the highway median so he could make a U-turn and get to any potential crash site.

By the time he reached the crash site, a crowd of about six people had gathered on the highway looking down the hillside to the burning plane.

“Everything was on fire – the trees were on fire – all that we could make out was the tail end of the plane,” Koebel said. Several people said they heard a couple explosions from the wreckage just minutes before he got there, Koebel said.

Along with two other men, he scaled an eight-foot fence and began searching for survivors. The three covered a 150-metre-wide area around the crash site and couldn’t find anyone before police, paramedics and fire crews arrived.

The single-engine Beaver de Havilland is a common aircraft used for bush flying.

“It’s been operating for over 50 years in the civilian world and spent many years in the military world as well,” Yearwood said.

“This particular one was equipped with floats with amphibious landing gear so it could land on land or in the water.”