CRANBROOK, B.C. — The fiery helicopter crash that killed four people Tuesday in Cranbrook could have been a lot worse.
RCMP spokesman Corporal Chris Faulkner said that given the number of schools, apartment buildings and houses in the residential area, it's incredible the helicopter missed them all.
Carla Hall knows what he means.
Ms. Hall watched from her 10th Street yard as the helicopter crashed to the ground, killing hydro power-line technicians Dirk Bentley Rozenboom, 45, and Robert William Lehmann, 37, pilot Edward Heeb, 57, and university student Isaiah Otieno, 20, who was crossing the street.
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Ms. Hall said her first thought as she watched the helicopter's wreckage burn was of her daughter Tionna, 7, and how glad she was Tionna was in school and not at her juice stand with her friends from the neighbourhood.
“Every day after school, the three girls … they set up a juice stand on the sidewalk in the exact spot where it happened. Another hour and a half later, all the kids would have been out there,” she said. “I'm thinking, ‘Oh my god, that's our kids that are there playing every day.'” Tionna and her friends sold Kool-Aid and homemade cookies on the vacant lawn where the helicopter crashed.
“As soon as they got here from school … they'd stay out there for hours selling their Kool-Aid,” Ms. Hall said, adding that now she's much more cautious about letting her daughter play outside.
One B.C. Hydro worker narrowly missed being on board at the time of the crash: he felt airsick and swapped places with a co-worker, Cpl. Faulkner said.
Cpl. Faulkner said the man got off the helicopter when it was refuelling around noon.
B.C. Hydro community relations manager Diane Tammen said she can't release any information about that man.
Several B.C. Hydro employees refused to comment. One said they've been asked not to on behalf of the families involved.
Cpl. Faulkner said the man is understandably upset.
“He's shaken up pretty good, so he doesn't want to talk about it,” he said. “He's thinking, ‘I'm lucky to be alive,' but by the same token he's feeling guilty as hell that someone else died in his place.”
All the debris from the crash site has been cleared and taken to Vancouver for inspection. The site where the plane crashed and where Tionna Hall sold Kool-Aid is marked by blotchy, burned pavement and a strong acrid smell.
Townspeople set up a makeshift memorial – two lawn chairs, several bouquets, stuffed animals and a star-shaped pillow reading, “Ed Heeb, You are a star to us.”
The Transportation Safety Board is continuing its investigation in Vancouver and an autopsy of the pilot began Thursday.
Gerry MacIntyre, the community coroner in charge of the investigation, said it could be up to six months before the autopsy is completed and results released. Toxicology tests also have to be done, and burns make an autopsy more challenging, Mr. MacIntyre said.
Acting regional coroner Tonia Grace said autopsies are not being done on the three other victims because the cause of death was evident upon examination by a coroner. The bodies may be released as soon as tomorrow.
Things are getting back to normal in the neighbourhood, but Ursula Platz, who has lived in her house on 10th Street for almost 40 years, said people are still in shock.
“It happened so fast and so gruesome, if it happens right in front of you – very sad,” she said, her eyes tearing up.
“You don't forget it, you know.”
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