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VANCOUVER — Four people are dead following a helicopter crash into a remote northwestern British Columbia river.
The chopper crashed about 8 a.m. local time, flipping over into the icy and fast flowing Kitsault River near Alice Arm, B.C., about 150 kilometres northeast of Prince Rupert.
A search and rescue team had to parachute into the site where they immediately found two people dead and confirmed later a second two had died, said Second Lieutenant Jill Strelieff.
She could not say whether the victims died on impact or afterwards, and where they were in relation to the crash site. She said the area where the helicopter crashed is densely wooded and difficult for rescuers to access.
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“It's not how we would have liked it to end,” said Second-Lt. Jill Strelieff of the Victoria Rescue Co-ordination Centre.
“Whenever we have a situation like this, we always hope for the best outcome and unfortunately in this situation we didn't have any survivors.”
Second-Lt. Strelieff said it was tough for the rescuers to get to the scene where they found the helicopter upside down in the river.
“[It's] very difficult terrain. There are a lot of gorges, steep cliffs. It's a difficult terrain to get into,” she said. “It's a fairly swift-moving body of water. It just added complications to the rescue.”
Prince Rupert RCMP Constable Krista Vrolyk said the Canadian Coast Guard, the RCMP's marine section and dive team and the Prince Rupert RCMP were trying to recover the bodies. She wouldn't release any information on the victims because RCMP are still contacting family members.
The helicopter, an MD 500D, belonged to Pitt Meadows-based Prism Helicopters. Prism President Dave Zall said the helicopter was chartered for a job in that area but he can't elaborate as to who had chartered the helicopter or for what purpose.
“There was a job that we were on working in that area. ... We have to wait for more information to come in. I can't speculate; I have to make sure we have facts.”
This is the second fatal air craft crash in B.C. this week. On Sunday morning a float plane crashed on Vancouver Island, leaving five of the seven occupants dead.
That day the crew of log loaders, all employees of the marine transport company Seaspan International, climbed aboard a vintage Grumman Goose operated by Pacific Coastal Airlines at the Port Hardy airport for a 20-minute flight to a logging camp on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The six passengers were wearing bright orange floater jackets, ready for the water landing of the amphibious aircraft.
Seventeen minutes after takeoff, the plane slammed into a mountainside, killing the pilot and the four passengers sitting up front.
The flight plan had taken them over a densely wooded mountain range on central Vancouver Island. Investigators initially suggested the twin-prop engines may have stalled, but a Transportation Safety Board official said on the weekend there is no evidence yet of a malfunction.
"Our information for this is that everything was working okay," Bill Yearwood said.
"We have to look at the weather, the aircraft itself, the operation, the man-machine interface."
Hitting a mountainside at an elevation of 600 metres, the plane burst into flames. Two men managed to climb out of the wreckage minutes before a series of explosions consumed the body of the plane.
Three hours after the crash, convinced they had been abandoned, one of the surviving men managed to limp to a peak where his cellphone reception was strong enough for him to text-message a colleague, asking for help.
Search-and-rescue teams struggled throughout the day to hone in on the weak, intermittent signals from the cellphone. The thickly wooded terrain hid the wreckage, and the aircraft's emergency beacon was destroyed.
The break came when Billy Ternes, a search master aboard a Squadron 442 Cormorant helicopter, spotted a burn mark in the trees at 4:32 p.m., just north of Port Alice. "You almost had to be right on top to see it," said Sgt. Simpson, the search-and-rescue team leader.
There was nowhere to land, so the search and rescue team lowered themselves by rope 45 metres down to a spot nearby. The wash from the props sent trees crashing down around the medical crew. It was, he said, "a nasty spot."
Names of the victims of that crash have been released.
Terry Axton, 51, worked for Seaspan as log loader. He was with the company for more than 30 years. He lived with his partner Grace and two children in Maple Ridge.
Mark McLean, 48, had worked with Seaspan as a log loader since June 2008. He lived in Comox and is survived by his wife Deb and his stepdaughter Meghan McMurran.
Scott Thorne, 56, worked as a mate and had been with Seaspan for 30 years. He's survived by his wife and two daughters in Vancouver.
Grant Wood, 62, worked as a log loader and had been with Seaspan for 23 years. He's survived by his wife and two children, who live in Chilliwack.
