Bodies, black box recovered from Red Lake plane crash

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This article was published 12/11/2013 (4437 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The bodies of five people — as well as two black boxes — have been recovered from the wreckage of the Bearskin Airlines plane which crashed just short of the Red Lake airport on Sunday.

Peter Hildebrand, of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said today the Ontario Chief Coroner’s office this morning extricated the bodies of the two pilots — a 34-year-old from Winnipeg and a 25-year-old from Mississauga, Ont. — and the three passengers, a 53-year-old woman, a 53-year-old man and a 64-year-old woman, all from Red Lake. A man and woman survived the crash and are recovering in hospital.

Hildebrand said one of the recovered black boxes records conversations made by the two pilots, both between each other in the plane and with air traffic control.

He said the other one recovered is the flight data recorder which stores the plane’s technical information including altitude, air speed and propellor speed.

“This one suffered some damage due to impact and fire, but we still hope to get information from it,” he said.

He said it will take months before investigators know why the twin-engine turboprop plane crashed after a short flight from Sioux Lookout.

Hildebrand verified that the plane had been involved in “several previous incidents” including a Nov. 1999 runway overrun in Dryden which caused “substantial damage”.

TSB records state the plane ran off the runway, collided with approach lights and the instrument landing system’s localizer antennae before coming to a stop about 90 metres past the end of the runway.

Hildebrand said the plane was repaired and has been flying ever since.

“Our investigations routinely examine all aspects of an aircraft’s maintenance and damage history to determine whether any such factors may have been related to the accident under investigation,” he said.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca