Nearly two years after the crash of a small, commercial passenger plane just short of the runway at Vancouver International Airport (YVR) that claimed the lives of two pilots and injured seven passengers, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada will release its investigation report Wednesday morning (July 31).
TSB officials will make their findings public during a media-only event at the BCIT Aerospace Technology Campus, not far from the crash site on Oct. 27, 2011 when a Beechcraft King Air 100 belonging to Northern Thunderbird Air Inc. returned to YVR to make a landing.
For videoAccording to the TSB's interim report from February 2012, the aircraft experienced an oil leak and about 15 minutes after taking off diverted back to the airport.
On the approach to the runway at an altitude of about 300 feet, the plane suddenly banked left, pitched nosedown, and slammed into the ground along Russ Baker Way then caught fire.
Passersby, many of them motorists who avoided the crashing plane as it skidded across the busy roadway, helped evacuate some passengers, while fire and rescue personnel rescued the remaining passenger and the pilots.
The aircraft was destroyed and all of the passengers were seriously injured, stated the TSB. Both pilots, 44-year-old Luc Fortin and Matt Robic, 26, died of their injuries later in hospital.
Visit www.richmond-news.com for the full story. Also, look online for an update after the report is released.
