d(at)cfisher.com
Guest
|
 Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 7:17 am Post subject: Beaver in the news saving boaters -Floatplane lands to save |
 |
|
.http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=b4e8d1a2-2e90-4133-8b06-c4335da4c6ff&k=5111
  99 && cc_year < 200) {cc_year += 1900} else { if (cc_year < 100) {cc_year = 2000 + cc_year}} document.write (cc_days[today.getDay()]+" » "+cc_months[today.getMonth()]+" "+today.getDate()+" » "+cc_year); //--> Wednesday » March 21 » 2007
Floatplane lands to save boaters
Chad Skelton Vancouver Sun
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
STRAIT OF GEORGIA - A father and son from Vancouver whose boat capsized in the Strait of Georgia Monday may well owe their lives to a veteran seaplane pilot from Saltspring Island and his sharp-eyed passenger.
Around 5:20 p.m., St. Clair McColl, owner and pilot of Saltspring Air, took off from Vancouver harbour for his last run of the day back to Saltspring Island.
It was a light load, with just two regulars on board -- Jonathan Yardley, who sat in the co-pilot seat, and Mary Paul, who sat a row behind.
Due to high winds, McColl was flying much lower than usual.
The plane was about two kilometres off Point Grey when Paul looked down and noticed a small red speck in the ocean -- what, on closer inspection, appeared to be a life jacket.
"She tapped Saint on the shoulder and said, 'Down there. Look, down there,'" Yardley recalled.
McColl circled around and, after confirming it was a capsized boat, called the Vancouver control tower to report the emergency.
Then, despite choppy seas, McColl, a pilot for 30 years, successfully landed the plane alongside the 16-foot aluminum boat.
"We made several attempts to tie up to the overturned vessel without injuring the people who were on it, because there was quite a bit of swell and chop," McColl said.
Eventually, the two men on the boat threw McColl a line and he was able to pull them close enough to his plane so they could jump aboard.
The two boaters -- a 55-year-old man and his 16-year-old son -- were wearing life-jackets but were very cold.
They told him they had been on the overturned boat for an hour and a half.
"They were glad to see me, but in hypothermic shock, so they couldn't say much," said McColl. "[The father] asked me my name and I said, 'It's Saint.' And he looked at me and said, 'Yeah, right.'"
McColl took off again, landing at the Richmond seaplane terminal, where paramedics treated the two men for hypothermia and shock.
Yardley, an architect who flies to Vancouver once or twice a week, said McColl is the best pilot he knows and he doubts many other pilots could have landed in such rough conditions.
McColl, modestly, credits Paul for spotting the boat in the first place -- and his plane, a deHavilland Beaver.
"They were lucky it was a Beaver," he said. "It's really time-tested -- it's a good aircraft to land in such waters."
Marc Proulx of the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre said the pair aboard the capsized boat were on their way to Valdez Island from Vancouver -- about an hour-long journey -- when they ran into mechanical difficulties and capsized.
Asked if such a small craft was safe to travel such a long distance, Proulx replied: "If you were to ask the people onboard, they'd probably say no. And I wouldn't ... argue with them."
cskelton(at)png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
| | - The Matronics Seaplane-List Email Forum - | | | Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:
http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Seaplane-List |
|
| Description: |
|
| Filesize: |
92 Bytes |
| Viewed: |
1814 Time(s) |
|
| Description: |
|
| Filesize: |
5.3 KB |
| Viewed: |
1809 Time(s) |
|
|
|
Get Email Distribution Too!
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
