The twin-engine plane lost power to both engines and crashed shortly after taking off from Bella Bella on Dec. 18, 2023.
Water-contaminated fuel caused a plane bound for Port Hardy to crash into a forest just after taking off from Bella Bella, forcing four passengers and the pilot to bushwhack to get help, an investigation has determined. The twin-engine plane lost power to both engines shortly after takeoff on Dec. 18, 2023, and crashed, according to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.
A passenger on board the Grumman Goose amphibious aircraft previously told the Times Colonist the plane crashed nose-first into a forest near the Bella Bella airport. Kelsy Wurzinger heard the engine sputter, “and then it was just complete silence as we flew down into the trees. All you could hear was us hitting the trees,” she said, adding the plane “kind of crumbled” around them. All five on board bushwhacked through dense forest and heavy rain about half a kilometre to a road where people who had watched the plane go down were waiting.
The safety board’s investigation determined the aircraft, owned by Port Hardy-based Wilderness Seaplanes, was refuelled from a fuel drum in Bella Bella that was stored upright, which likely allowed water to enter the drum via the vent or plug. The operator was unaware of Transport Canada’s guidance that fuel drums be stored on their sides, according to the safety board.
Common safeguards to protect against contamination, such as filters and water-detection paste, which changes colour when exposed to water, were not used, and because it was assumed the task of fuelling was simple and that pilots would have prior experience, no training or clear procedures were provided, the safety board found. Fuel sampling was only required during daily inspections, and it had become normalized to omit the task, according to the investigation report. The safety board said the incident highlights the “serious risks” of fuel contamination when proper precautions are not taken during drum fuelling.
Following the crash, Wilderness Seaplanes equipped its two other Grumman Goose aircraft with a clear container that simplified one-person fuel sampling from the cockpit and made it mandatory to collect and inspect a fuel sample after fuelling aircraft from any source other than a fuel truck or fuel tanks at two specified locations, the safety board said. The aircraft involved in the crash was damaged beyond repair. The pilot, who had worked for the company for about six years and was the chief pilot, was fired after the crash.
Vince Crooks, operations manager for Wilderness Seaplanes, said a series of missteps led to the crash, which occurred on the third flight of the day for the pilot and the plane. He first transported passengers from Port Hardy to a fish farm at Kid Bay. A return flight to Port Hardy was diverted due to weather conditions to Bella Bella, where the aircraft was fuelled from a fuel drum that was being used after the company’s fuel truck in Bella Bella broke down. While a fuel truck contains filtration systems to protect against contamination, those safeguards must be added to a fuel drum, Crooks said. The company had used the fuel drum once and decided it needed a new filter, which was sitting in a box at the time of the crash, he said.
“It takes a bit of effort to get it all assembled, and there was nobody there to do it,” Crooks said.
The plane should have been grounded in Bella Bella due to an issue with its landing gear, but the pilot did not disclose the defect to the company, Crooks said. If he had, Wilderness Seaplanes would have ordered the plane grounded, and the pilot and passengers would have spent the night in Bella Bella. In that case, the pilot would have completed routine checks the next morning that likely would have caught the fuel contamination, Crooks said.
“There’s not usually [just] one thing — there’s usually a series of events,” he said. “We’re always looking for these hazards, and sometimes things don’t always register as they should.”
(Source: Times Colonist, Roxanne Egan-Elliot. Photo/Transportation Safety Board of Canada)
