Fatal crash at Stave Lake airstrip BC

[boeingboy]

Last night at 6 pm a Cessna 170 with 2 on board crashed at the old Stave Lake airstrip in BC - killing one of the occupants. Stave lake is an old strip that is technically closed and just a stones throw from the lower mainland airports, but you can still get in and out of there. It's not maintained and has obstacles, but the back country guys love it.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british- ... -1.5665679

Stave lake strip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejjkqwG-2tk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXh9cPo0VcA

[lhalliday]

The media keep reporting it as a 170 but it was actually a 140. I knew the pilot.

...laura

[boeingboy]

Thanks for the correction. Sorry for your loss.

Where was it based?

[karmutzen]

Thanks Laura, makes sense now. Couldn’t figure out where 170 came from. So much for journalistic standards. 140 (and her 182) based at YPK.

[boeingboy]

Just read about her - WOW, sounds like she was well versed and experienced in back county flying and a popular - well liked individual.

A sad loss....

[mmm..bacon]

Landing? Takeoff? What happened? Any witnesses?

Sad - by all acounts a competent pilot, and well-liked person.

[lhalliday]

No information as yet. The Authorities are investigating.

...laura

[JDW]

Hi Laura, can you pm me if you're willing to share the name?

[boeingboy]

Victim identified - Erissa Yong-Wilson ...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british- ... -1.5665679

[JDW]

Incredibly impressive woman. Such a sad loss. I did a bit of training at her school around 2012-2013 and remember being blown away by this dynamic woman who had a hangar full of motorcycles and Cessnas, jumping from skydiving to hamburger flights to anything else around the airport. RIP

[mmm..bacon]

Latest information I've gleaned from 2nd and 3rd hand sources: Aborted takeoff from an unprepared strip (Perhaps a gravel bar - unclear) braked too hard, and flipped over..

[boeingboy]

First of all they were at the airstrip.....second I find it very difficult to believe someone sustained fatal injuries from simply nosing over.

[AirFrame]

First of all they were at the airstrip.....second I find it very difficult to believe someone sustained fatal injuries from simply nosing over.

The aircraft was apparently not badly damaged (structurally) so I would tend to agree. But given the location there could be any number of things that the plane nosed over and came to rest on... Pointy rocks, stumps, etc. I've been told it was head trauma that caused the fatality.

[lhalliday]

I've heard much the same story. My response remains a polite but firm No Comment. Let the TSB do their thing.

...laura

[Big Pistons Forever]

Did the airplane have shoulder belts ? The reason I am asking this is a fellow I knew died in what sounds like a similar accident. His airplane had only a lap belt and sadly he sustained fatal head injuries when his head hit the instrument panel as the airplane nose dug in and threw him forward before it over turned.

I hope that was not the case here.

Personally I won’t fly in any aircraft that is not fitted with a full harness

[karmutzen]

But given the location there could be any number of things that the plane nosed over and came to rest on... Pointy rocks, stumps, etc.

It nosed over in the middle of the landing surface (can't really call it a runway). Nothing pointy around. About 100 yards from the S end. Why that would result in a fatality, either with or without shoulder belts, is a bit of a mystery and we'll have to wait for the TSB. Lots of pictures and videos of Stave on the internet. Not for beginners, which Erissa wasn't and had also been there before with the same airplane.

[goldeneagle]

It nosed over in the middle of the landing surface (can't really call it a runway). Nothing pointy around.

So another question that the investigators will have to ask. Which occurred first, the nose over or the death ? Some of the guessing here could possibly have the cause and effect reversed.

[airway]

Stave Lake landing video:

Beautiful area

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejjkqwG-2tk

[CpnCrunch]

Looks like it had shoulder harnesses:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... 9819976884

[iflyforpie]

Rest In Peace.

I did not know this inspirational aviatrix but her reputation definitely preceded her. I was hoping to run into her at the Quesnel air show last year as my daughter is really interested in aviation but our paths didn’t cross.

[cncpc]

First of all they were at the airstrip.....second I find it very difficult to believe someone sustained fatal injuries from simply nosing over.

The aircraft was apparently not badly damaged (structurally) so I would tend to agree. But given the location there could be any number of things that the plane nosed over and came to rest on... Pointy rocks, stumps, etc. I've been told it was head trauma that caused the fatality.

I've seen pictures of the aircraft upside down on the strip, close to the south end. There is a fair bit of damage to the tail feathers, which would have whacked down hardest in the flip. Other than that, it looks like a noseover that you'd get with too much brakes. One prop blade is bent back, the other doesn't seem to have any damage. The prop shaft may be broken and the engine moved on the mounts. The windshield does not appear to be broken, there is a small crease in one side of the cowling but the occupant area shows no damage at all.

Not clear whether it nosed over on takeoff or landing. As said above, it sure doesn't look like something that would cause serious injuries.

Any word on what the other woman's injuries were?

[pelmet]

C-GOFK, a privately operated Cessna 140, was conducting a VFR flight from the abandoned
airstrip at Stave Lake, BC to Pitt Meadows (CYPK), BC with 1 pilot and 1 passenger-pilot on board.
During the takeoff roll, control of the aircraft was lost. The aircraft came to rest inverted and in the
opposite direction of the attempted takeoff roll. The pilot sustained fatal injuries. The passengerpilot sustained minor injuries. There was no post-impact fire. TSB investigators deployed to the
site.

[pelmet]

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/u ... d=msedgntp

A Transportation Safety Board report says a warning of a seatbelt bracket failure may not have filtered down to the owner of a small plane that was involved in a deadly crash in British Columbia last year.

The Cessna 140 with two pilots aboard crashed on takeoff July 27 near Stave Lake in Mission, B.C., killing one pilot while leaving the other with minor injuries.

The report says a bracket holding the seatbelt for the pilot who was killed was found broken and later tests show the part failed due to overstress during the crash.

American authorities had issued a warning after a 2014 crash where the pilot was killed, telling operators and maintenance technicians of its concern with the same aluminum lap belt centre bracket.

The safety board says the owner of the Cessna 140 purchased the plane in 2016 and it's unclear if they were aware of the safety bulletin, but compliance with such bulletins isn't required.

The report says Transport Canada was evaluating the need for mandatory corrective action and was planning on publishing a Civil Aviation Safety Alert over the concern about the seatbelt mountain brackets.

[pelmet]

Performance related accident based on poor decision making and faulty flying technique.

Hot day, moderate density altitude, light winds, fully loaded, on a fairly short abandoned airstrip with an upslope and an significant obstacle off the end of it. It appears that an RTO was performed when it became obvious to the pilot that they could not get safely airborne.

The pilot had been there several times before so should have been familiar with its difficulties. It was 32 degrees Celsius that day.

Report said that the tail was held down throughout the takeoff roll which will likely create extra drag. In addition, it appears that they were unnecessarily tracking through some 8 inch grass during the videoed takeoff roll rather than on the clear portion that had been used on the last videoed takeoff.

I suspect they flipped over due to significant braking. Might be better to overrun into the grass than flip over due to heavy braking. Some pilots have intentionally ground looped in similar circumstances.

An FAA bulletin had been issued for the seatbelt unit, yet the owner had apparently not replaced the old style unit that failed in the manner that the FAA bulletin had said it could. The report also discussed that unsecured luggage can cause injury.

Somebody posted earlier about the pilot being inspirational. Perhaps a lot to be learned instead about hazard management and takeoff technique.

https://tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/ ... P0071.html

Something to consider when it comes to decision making....

viewtopic.php?f=118&t=141158&p=1131890& ... d#p1131890

viewtopic.php?f=118&t=125303&p=1065538& ... e#p1065538

It was only a fluke that the passenger who survived was not in the passenger seat or else he would have been killed instead with the pilot walking away after all the poor decisions made by her.

[ahramin]

https://wwwapps.tc.gc.ca/saf-sec-sur/2/ ... 021-02.PDF