Witness says pilot knew about ice on wings

Veteran crash investigator testifies that plane should not have left Pelee Island

The pilot of a doomed flight from Pelee Island in early 2004 was aware of ice contamination on the Cessna Caravan he was flying and should have never taken off, says an expert in aircraft crash investigations.

Larry Vance, who has investigated plane crashes around the world, including the 1998 crash of Swiss Air Flight 111 off Peggy’s Cove, N.S., that killed all 229 people on board, was called as an expert witness for the plaintiff in a civil trial regarding the crash of Georgian Express flight 126 that crashed through the ice on Lake Erie shortly after taking off from Pelee Island on Jan. 17, 2004.

The crash killed all 10 on board including pilot Wayne Price of Richmond Hill, his girlfriend, Jamie Levine of Los Angeles, and eight hunters from the area, including Robert Brisco, 46, and brothers Ted Reeve, 53, and Tom Reeve, 49, all of Chatham, Dr. Jim Allen, 51, of Mitchell’s Bay, Ronald Spencler, 53, and Walter Sadowski, 48, both of Windsor, as well as Fred Freitas, 38, and Larry Janik, 48, of Kingsville.

Vance, who worked for Transport Canada and as an investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) during his 52-year career, now works for a consulting company.

Vance said it is his conclusion the pilot was aware there was ice contamination on the aircraft before it took off from Pelee Island.

“Once he got on the ground in Pelee, the obvious choice would be don’t take off from there,” Vance said. “I think he knowingly and deliberately took off with the ice contamination,” he said of Price’s decision to fly in those conditions, which included freezing rain.

“It boggles the mind why someone would do that.”

Vance explained to the jury that ice contamination on the wings affects the plane’s ability to get lift when taking off, because it impedes the smooth flow of air over the wings.

Some witnesses have already testified that while watching flight 126 takeoff, the plane used nearly all of the runway and took flight at a lower angle than normal.

Vance said Price was “leaving it on the ground as long as he could (because he) wanted to get as much speed as he could, because he knew he had contamination on the plane.”

Vance said a zero-tolerance policy rule on ice and snow contamination came out of the investigation he led, into an Air Ontario Fokker F-28 plane that crashed near Dryden, Ont., in 1989, which killed 24 people.

Vance said for whatever reason, Price took on extra fuel that wasn’t needed before flying from Windsor to Pelee Island, which added unnecessary weight to the plane.

Then when the eight hunters and all their gear were loaded into the plane, it exceeded the gross maximum weight. An investigation by the TSB determined the plane was 576 kilograms over the maximum allowable takeoff weight — a fact Vance asserts that Price “deliberately ignored.”

Shortly after takeoff the plane experienced an aerodynamic stall, causing it to nosedive and descend at 2,200 feet per minute, hitting the ice on Lake Erie at 150 miles per hour (more than 240-kilometres per hour).

Paul Brisco, brother Robert Brisco, is suing for aggravated and punitive damages on behalf of himself and his brother’s estate.

Bob Love, lawyer for the defendants, asked Vance if the freezing rain began as the plane was going down the runway to take off, at some point would the pilot have to decide to either abort the flight or take off, considering Lake Erie is at the end of the runway.

Vance said a pilot wouldn’t want to abort if there wasn’t enough runway to stop.