WINNIPEG — The family of a Winnipeg-based pilot killed in a plane crash Sunday visited the crash site in Red Lake, Ont., Tuesday.
Aniruddh “Ani” Sawant, 25, was killed Sunday night when the Bearskin Airlines commuter plane he was flying crashed near Red Lake.
A total of five people died in the crash, including the other pilot: Peter Traczuk, 34, a father of three who was also from Winnipeg. Three passengers from Red Lake were killed, and two other passengers from Winnipeg survived the crash.
“Right now we are in Red Lake and we are visiting the crash site … Then we have to head over to Winnipeg to wrap up his residence and whatnot,” Sawant’s brother Sid told Global News in a telephone interview Tuesday.
The family felt a need to visit the crash site, he said.
“There’s the sense of closure, I mean to see the final resting place of where the entire tragedy happened.”
Sawant said his brother fell in love with aviation at an early age, joining the air cadets when he was 12 and eventually earning his pilot’s licence.
“From the age of three or four he put a cape on himself, and once he realized that didn’t work, he got in a vehicle that helped him fly. He loved flying.”
The cause of the crash is still unknown, though the Transportation Safety Board said the pilots indicated there was some sort of emergency five to eight minutes before the plane crashed. Survivors told investigators it sounded like the aircraft had some kind of mechanical trouble.
The survivors of the crash were also employees of Bearskin Airlines, both based in Winnipeg.
Global News has learned Julie Dayholos, a ticket agent for 20 years, is one of the victims. Relatives said she was in hospital in Winnipeg with a broken back, damaged pelvis and swollen face.
Keith Hoffman, 29, who also survived the crash and pulled Dayholos from the wreckage before it burst into flames, suffered minor burns.
A spokesperson for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said Tuesday that both are in stable condition.
Transportation Safety Board documents show the plane involved in Sunday’s crash sustained damage in an incident 14 years ago. Peter Hildebrand said in 1999 the plane went off the runway and sustained damage to the engine and some damage to the wing. But he also said it isn’t uncommon for planes to be put back into the rotation once they’re repaired.
The TSB recovered the aircraft’s flight data recorder, or black box, on Tuesday. Investigators hope it will help determine what went wrong.
Sawant, who is an aspiring actor, said he and his brother dreamed of someday combining their very different careers.
“Eventually he was hoping his little brother would have a successful movie career and cart him around on his jet,” Sawant said.
Sawant and his brother are originally from Mississauga, Ont. Aniruddh lived in Winnipeg.
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