2009 Gladstone mid-air collision had ‘miracle’ outcome

Wreckage of a crop duster still sits in a fenced compound at Gladstone Airport, not far from the runway where two descending planes collided almost 16 years ago.

According to Canadian aviation crash reports, since 1990 there have been 46 mid-air collisions between two aircraft; two of them occurred in Manitoba, including the fatal event involving student pilots near Steinbach on Tuesday.

In what is still called a miracle, both pilots walked away from the Gladstone crash on July 13, 2009.

“It is only by God’s grace they both didn’t die.”–Darrel Teichrib

“They were unaware of each other’s presence heading for the same runway at the same time,” said Darrel Teichrib, who owns a repair company at the municipal-owned airport and volunteers with others to look after the facility located some 140 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

“It is only by God’s grace they both didn’t die.”

Noting the much different outcome in Tuesday’s crash at Steinbach, Teichrib said the 2009 event “really was a miracle.”

The single-seat 1992 Air Tractor and 1999 Pezetel M18B Dromader were about 100 metres in the air and heading to the runway at the Gladstone Airport at about 7 p.m., when the Dromader dropped down on top of the Air Tractor. The Dromader’s propeller made contact with the other plane’s engine and forward fuselage, causing both pilots to lose control.

The Air Tractor crashed nose-down just short of the runway, before flipping over and bursting into flame. The pilot was able to get out of his restraining belts and climb out of the cockpit before the plane was completely consumed by the blaze.

He was hospitalized a few days with burns to his hands and arms.

The Dromader crash-landed in a swamp beside the runway, with the pilot able to get out uninjured.

At the time, the Free Press reported the “fiery crash” of two crop-dusting planes in mid-air was being investigated by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

Then-TSB regional manager Peter Hildebrand said because the planes were heading in the same direction, about 100 m in the air and shortly before the end of the runway, when they struck each other investigators would be focusing on why the pilots didn’t see each other to avoid the crash.

“We’re trying to work out the angles and see what would have been visible to each pilot,” Hildebrand said.

Five months later, the TSB’s official investigation report concluded the pilot of the Dromader had entered the runway approach by make a right turn instead of going around the airport and making left turns like the Air Tractor pilot had done.

“This compromised his opportunity to observe other traffic in the area and join the circuit without conflict with other traffic,” the nine-page report said.

“It’s not very often you hear of something like this. It did happen in 2009, but they are rare because airplanes are small compared to the size of the sky.”–Peter Hildebrand

As well, because the Dromader was coming in from the west, the then-southbound Air Tractor’s pilot would only have seen the front of its engine and leading edges of its wings and tail, instead of the brightly coloured side of the fuselage. While the pilot of the higher-altitude Dromader would not have seen the Air Tractor because it was obscured by his aircraft’s own nose.

Contacted this week by the Free Press, one of the surviving pilots said he still didn’t want to comment on the incident almost 16 years later. The other pilot, who retired from crop dusting later that summer, and returned to his home in Quebec, could not be reached for comment.

Earl Knox, owner of Glad Air Spray, which owned both planes in the 2009 crash, also declined comment.

Contacted on Wednesday, the since-retired Hildebrand said mid-air collisions “are rare.

“It’s not very often you hear of something like this. It did happen in 2009, but they are rare because airplanes are small compared to the size of the sky.”

As for Teichrib, he said he knows everyone who was involved in the collision in 2009. He said occasionally someone takes a look at the wrecked Dromader to see if there are any parts which can be reused on another plane.

“Both of them were very proficient and experienced pilots,” he said. “It was just a shock what happened, but we also have gratitude. I’m just glad that both of them are still with us.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca