Float-plane pilot’s body recovered

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This article was published 07/05/2012 (4991 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was one of the places he loved most — a cabin he built in an isolated part of eastern Manitoba where he would fish for walleye and canoe on the lake.

But Al Graham’s first trip of the year to his remote hideaway became his last. On Saturday, the 81-year-old Gimli man’s float plane — a Lake LA-4 200 Buccaneer — crashed into Kapekun Lake, about 350 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

His body was recovered Sunday at about 5 p.m., and an autopsy will be performed, RCMP D Division spokesman Cpl. Miles Hiebert said Monday morning. Transportation Safety Board officials are investigating what led to the tragic accident.

“He decided to go by himself, and apparently it was his last flight,” said close friend Harold Desveaux. “He always said it was very peaceful. I guess he’d never thought he’d die there.”

Desveaux said Graham was an avid outdoorsman who had been flying his own plane since the 1970s. Graham had made the trip to his cabin from Gimli countless times over the years and was familiar with the route. Before every trip, Graham would phone Desveaux and tell him to “go looking for him” if his float plane didn’t return on time.

It was always just a precaution, Desveaux said, until the unthinkable happened.

Desveaux said he and Graham initially planned to travel to the cabin together last week, until a bout of bad weather grounded their trip. Desveaux ventured up north with another friend, and Graham travelled to his cottage solo on Saturday at about 11 a.m.

Desveaux alerted search and rescue crews when he flew over Graham’s cabin and saw the float plane hadn’t arrived.

Capt. Jean Houde of CFB Trenton’s Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre outside Trenton, Ont., said a Hercules aircraft was dispatched from Winnipeg around 11 p.m. Saturday after someone reported the man’s plane had not arrived as scheduled.

Search and rescue crews followed the flight path and saw wreckage submerged in a lake east of Lake Winnipeg, Houde said.

RCMP confirmed the plane went down in Kapekun Lake.

“They found the aircraft upside down in the water around 2 a.m.,” Houde said.

Houde said the lake is in the middle of nowhere, with no roads and no way for a helicopter to land. Two members of the search-and-rescue team jumped from the Hercules aircraft into the water and found the lone pilot had not survived, he said.

The search-and-rescue team was forced to camp on a nearby island for the night since there was no way to get them out. Houde said the crew members are well-trained for this type of situation and were flown back to Winnipeg in a float plane Sunday afternoon.

RCMP dive teams were en route to Kapekun Lake on Sunday to recover Graham’s body, although no information on the mission was available late Sunday night.

The Transportation Safety Board has been notified of the crash and will investigate the cause of the accident, Houde said.

Relatives said they are devastated by the accident and declined to comment on Sunday.

“I’m still in shock,” Graham’s daughter, Helen Davidson, said from her Winnipeg home.

Peter Hildebrand, regional director of the Transportation Safety Board’s Central Region, said information is still being gathered but, because the lake is so remote and only accessible by float plane, it could be some time before the wreckage can be recovered and inspected. “It’s not easy to get the machinery there to recover the plane,” he said. “It’s certainly more involved.”

The float plane was manufactured in 1978 in the United States, according to Canadian aircraft registration details.

Desveaux said Graham was a widower with four daughters and several grandkids. He was originally from Scotland, and his wife was from Berens River. Desveaux said Graham worked as a fisherman on Lake Winnipeg when he first moved to Gimli.

He said Graham worked on government projects up north and also owned a store in Berens River.

A neighbour in Gimli, Karl Emms, said Graham spent the winter months in Florida and had just returned at the start of April.

“He would help you out any time he could,” Emms said. “I’m shocked… he was a very, very nice man.”

jen.skerritt@freepress.mb.ca jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca