‘Moving up and down’
FOND DU LAC, Sask. — One of the survivors of a plane crash in northern Saskatchewan says he knew something was wrong about 10 seconds after takeoff.
“The plane was just moving up and down, side by side,” said Willie John Laurent, a band councillor with the Fond du Lac Dene Nation who was on the plane. “The last I remember is it touching the ground. That’s the last I know.”
Laurent, his wife Helen and their daughter Amanda were among the 22 passengers — including an infant — and three crew members aboard a West Wind Aviation turboprop that crashed Wednesday around 6:15 p.m. near the remote community of Fond du Lac in the boreal forest area of northern Saskatchewan.
It was scheduled to travel 80 km east to Stony Rapids, then on to Wollaston and Prince Albert.
No one was killed in the crash. At least five people were seriously injured and needed to be airlifted to hospital.
Darryl McDonald said his 70-year-old mother, Ernestine, suffered a broken jaw and facial injuries when the plane went down about a kilometre from the airstrip. His sister also suffered injuries to her leg.
Laurent, who was bruised on one side of his body, remembers hearing screaming as the plane went down.
“People yelling, yelling, yelling,” he said. “Then you smell a lot of fuel, a lot of jet fuel. Good thing there was no spark.”
A photo of the crash site shows the damaged aircraft partly on its side in the trees, with a wing jutting up in the air at a 45-degree angle. The cause of the crash isn’t known yet.
It took about four hours to rescue all the passengers and crew from the plane. Local RCMP officers, rangers and at least 50 residents in the 900-person community immediately went to the scene to help.
Chris Fountain, a civilian guard at the RCMP detachment, was playing radio bingo when he called his work to see if he needed to go in.
“I actually got Regina telecoms and they told me that the members are really busy, there’s been a plane crash. So I just hung up the phone and went for a ride.”
Fountain jumped on his snowmobile, driving about four minutes into the bush to find the plane and help with the rescue.
“You could smell fuel so, of course, we made sure everybody’s cellphone was shut off and nobody was smoking,” he said.
“We took the ones that were in shock and jumped on Ski-Doos behind people or in front of people and we pulled them out.
“The rest were on stretcher boards and we sleighed them out up to the road.
“Then the ambulance or whatever nursing station vehicles were there to haul the ones coming off on stretchers out.”
Other residents were helping at the health clinic in the community.
“Everyone was involved,” said Sandra Adam, who spent her night going back and forth to the clinic with blankets and coffee. “It was really crazy.
“Everybody helped out. I don’t think there was one person who didn’t help.”
The twin-engine ATR-42 turboprop can accommodate 50 passengers, but most typically seats 42, along with two crew. Manufactured in France and Italy, the aircraft is designed for shorthaul flights.
West Wind Aviation, formed in 1983, operates from bases in Saskatoon, La Ronge and Stony Rapids, as well as in northern Saskatchewan. The company is First Nations and employeeowned, with Athabasca Basin Development as the majority shareholder.
“Our safety record is exemplary and our customer service exceptional,” the company states on its website. “Fly with West Wind and let us take care for you.”
Investigators with the Transportation Safety Board were scheduled to arrive in Fond du Lac Thursday.