25 October 2012 — The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) has deployed a team of investigators to the site of an air accident near Puslinch Lake, Ontario. The TSB will gather information and assess the occurrence.
The Record - local news
PUSLINCH — Rescue crews are hiking through trees to reach a small plane that’s crashed at the southeast corner of Puslinch Lake, east of the Cambridge city limits.
Two people are injured, said John Prno, manager of Waterloo Region emergency medical services.
Cambridge firefighters, paramedics and Ontario Provincial Police were alerted by witnesses at 2:29 p.m. They used a driveway at 6620 Concession 1 to access the wreckage.
“It’s really awkward to get to. You have to go in on a path then take a horse trail to get to the little plane,” Prno said.
An eyewitness told broadcast media two float planes had been practicing landings and takeoffs when one crashed into the woods near a cottage.
Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
Moderators: sky's the limit, sepia, Sulako, lilfssister, North Shore
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bizjets101
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costermonger
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Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
Not good.. Update from bizjet's link.
PUSLINCH — Rescue crews scrambled to reach a small plane that crashed at the southeast corner of Puslinch Lake, east of the Cambridge city limits Thursday.
OPP Inspector Scott Lawson, Wellington County detachment commander, said there were two men aboard the plane. One was taken to Cambridge Memorial Hospital by land ambulance, the other remained at the scene. The coroner had been called, he said.
There were no details offered on the extent of the injuries of the man sent to hospital. Cambridge Fire Department Platoon Chief Dave Mawdsley said an air ambulance had been dispatched, but was then called off. His people were not called upon to help get the occupants out of the aircraft.
No information was made available on the age, names or place of residence of the two occupants.
Cambridge firefighters, paramedics and Ontario Provincial Police were alerted by witnesses at 2:29 p.m. They used a driveway at 6620 Concession 1 to access the wreckage.
Eyewitnesses say two float planes had been practising landings and takeoffs when one crashed into the woods near a home.
Ken Elligson, an area resident, was at the Old Marina Restaurant watching the planes. The red and white float plane had completed about three takeoffs when it quickly taxied across the lake, he said.
But the pilot seemed to be getting out the water late and “had just enough altitude to get over the trees.”
“It looked like he was trying to take off, but it was just too low,” said witness Matt Davey who lives at the end of Eagle Lane. “I heard it hit the top of the trees. I was just at the front of my house. I saw him coming toward me.”
When asked if the pilot seemed to be trying to avoid a large house under construction about 100 metres from the shore, Elligson said “That’s really the way it looked.”
The plane banked, “flipped over” and disappeared into the trees, he said.
Elligson jumped on his motorcycle and raced to the scene where he ran into others who heard the crash. They waited for emergency workers to arrive.
Mawdsley said five trucks were scrambled to join paramedics and OPP. Puslinch Fire Department was expected to take over Thursday evening.
Mawdsley said it was fortunate to have clear directions to the site and he noted emergency workers were able to get to the scene quickly. There was no fire, but crews are working to ensure no fuel reached the lake.
A nearby home was not damaged, but power was knocked out. Lawson said power lines on or near the wreckage posed a hazard to emergency workers.
Police officers were conducting a number of interviews with witnesses Thursday afternoon. Lawson also noted Transportation Safety Board investigators had arrived to conduct their work.
“They will give us direction on what we need to do,” he said. “They’re the experts … We want to rely on their good judgment.”
PUSLINCH — Rescue crews scrambled to reach a small plane that crashed at the southeast corner of Puslinch Lake, east of the Cambridge city limits Thursday.
OPP Inspector Scott Lawson, Wellington County detachment commander, said there were two men aboard the plane. One was taken to Cambridge Memorial Hospital by land ambulance, the other remained at the scene. The coroner had been called, he said.
There were no details offered on the extent of the injuries of the man sent to hospital. Cambridge Fire Department Platoon Chief Dave Mawdsley said an air ambulance had been dispatched, but was then called off. His people were not called upon to help get the occupants out of the aircraft.
No information was made available on the age, names or place of residence of the two occupants.
Cambridge firefighters, paramedics and Ontario Provincial Police were alerted by witnesses at 2:29 p.m. They used a driveway at 6620 Concession 1 to access the wreckage.
Eyewitnesses say two float planes had been practising landings and takeoffs when one crashed into the woods near a home.
Ken Elligson, an area resident, was at the Old Marina Restaurant watching the planes. The red and white float plane had completed about three takeoffs when it quickly taxied across the lake, he said.
But the pilot seemed to be getting out the water late and “had just enough altitude to get over the trees.”
“It looked like he was trying to take off, but it was just too low,” said witness Matt Davey who lives at the end of Eagle Lane. “I heard it hit the top of the trees. I was just at the front of my house. I saw him coming toward me.”
When asked if the pilot seemed to be trying to avoid a large house under construction about 100 metres from the shore, Elligson said “That’s really the way it looked.”
The plane banked, “flipped over” and disappeared into the trees, he said.
Elligson jumped on his motorcycle and raced to the scene where he ran into others who heard the crash. They waited for emergency workers to arrive.
Mawdsley said five trucks were scrambled to join paramedics and OPP. Puslinch Fire Department was expected to take over Thursday evening.
Mawdsley said it was fortunate to have clear directions to the site and he noted emergency workers were able to get to the scene quickly. There was no fire, but crews are working to ensure no fuel reached the lake.
A nearby home was not damaged, but power was knocked out. Lawson said power lines on or near the wreckage posed a hazard to emergency workers.
Police officers were conducting a number of interviews with witnesses Thursday afternoon. Lawson also noted Transportation Safety Board investigators had arrived to conduct their work.
“They will give us direction on what we need to do,” he said. “They’re the experts … We want to rely on their good judgment.”
Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
The Hamilton Spectator, 680 News and 570 News are confirming one dead.
I have some friends who fly on Puslinch Lake, I haven't been able to get in touch with them.
My thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who have been injured/lost.
If anyone knows anything, I'd really appreciate a PM.
I have some friends who fly on Puslinch Lake, I haven't been able to get in touch with them.
My thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who have been injured/lost.
If anyone knows anything, I'd really appreciate a PM.
Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
I am hearing that the aircraft was a C172 based out of waterloo Wellington
It was confirm to me that the fatality was the owner .
It was confirm to me that the fatality was the owner .
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bizjets101
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Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/one-dead-in ... -1.1010787
According to the above link:
"OPP have identified the deceased as 47-year-old Russell Hawkins of Guelph."
I didn't know him, but I knew of him.
My condolences to his family and friends. This is terrible news.
According to the above link:
"OPP have identified the deceased as 47-year-old Russell Hawkins of Guelph."
I didn't know him, but I knew of him.
My condolences to his family and friends. This is terrible news.
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pointyendforward
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Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
A good source tells me it was a 180 amphib, not sure where it was based.
Condolences to his friends and family...
Condolences to his friends and family...
Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
Russ was a very prominent person in the world of online gaming. He operated the Major Wager online gambling forum.
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bizjets101
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Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
C-GBLG Cessna 172N Skyhawk II based Waterloo
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pointyendforward
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Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
I guess my source is not as good as I thought... That picture sends chills up my spine....
Please fly safe all!!!
PEF
Please fly safe all!!!
PEF
Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
Mr. Hawkins was completing a float rating. The accident flight was to be his last one prior to qualifying.
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tedcuthbert
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Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
Further developments on this one (long read)
When this happened, I'd wondered why they were attempting a downwind/crosswind take-off on a 5000' lake, towards the steepest terrain on the lake, in an amphib 172, on a warm day.
Guelph Mercury - Searching For Answers - Published May 10 , 2013
PUSLINCH — Elvira Hawkins circles the wreckage of her late husband’s small airplane. She pulls back a tarp to peer into the cabin where he died. It’s a dark mess of seats and wires.
Russ Hawkins, 47, was killed when his Cessna 172 crashed into the hilly shoreline of Puslinch Lake last October. He was practising to land and take off from water. A second man on board survived.
The wreckage is in pieces, stored in the corner of a Brantford hangar. The fuselage is dented. The nose cone is disfigured. Wings and tail are propped up against a wall. Damaged floats sit nearby, peeled back by the impact.
Elvira dabs her eyes, red and wet. It’s the first time she has seen the wreckage. The twisted metal seems small and hardly capable of flight.
The federal Transportation Safety Board, which investigates aviation crashes, closed its probe by saying Hawkins misjudged his takeoff and chose not to wear the shoulder harness that might have saved him.
But the Waterloo Region Record discovered there’s far more to the fatal crash than investigators have revealed in 87 words. Transport Canada initiated a review after the newspaper questioned the safety board investigation.
The safety investigation is silent on mechanical concerns raised before the crash. It does not reveal that the survivor is a flight instructor who was unable to prevent the crash. It does not reveal that the flight may have violated aviation regulations. It says nothing about a cockpit struggle alleged to have occurred in the final seconds in a failed bid to abort the takeoff.
“The investigation was so short and in my opinion brief,” Elvira complains. “A person died here. That’s somebody’s life.”
Simon Kuijer is polite but firm. He will not discuss the crash that killed Russ Hawkins.
Kuijer is the last person to see Hawkins alive. They were seated beside each other when the Cessna crashed. Kuijer suffered minor injuries.
“That was his dream all his life,” his widow Elvira says. “He always wanted to fly.”
“He would study things and examine things. He would consume himself with it,” business partner Robert Sigal explains.
Hawkins stored his 1979 Cessna at the regional airport east of Kitchener. Over nine months he spent more than $140,000 to refurbish it inside and out.
“He did fine,” Mavor recalls. “I was in control. Of course he was learning. He wasn’t ready to go solo.”
Hawkins quickly departed Orillia after the lesson ended.
Courtesy Hawkins family Russ Hawkins stands next to his plane, which he was in when it crashed near Puslinch Lake last October. Hawkins was killed and another man survived.
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“It’s almost like ‘Oh my God, we had six deaths in a year, so let’s brush off the last one. We don’t need more trouble,’ ” Elvira says. It pains her even more to be so suspicious.
“It’s a bit of a hard topic to talk about,” he says on the porch of a Georgetown townhouse. “He was a good friend of mine. And that’s about all I’d really like to say.”
The pair flew together a lot. Kuijer, an instructor with the Waterloo Wellington Flight Centre, gave Hawkins his first flying lesson on Feb. 2, 2012. After that they flew together 23 more times according to a pilot logbook kept by Hawkins. For all 24 flights, Hawkins named Kuijer as the pilot in command, while he recorded himself as the student co-pilot.
Kuijer is rated in Canada to pilot single and multi-engine aircraft on land and sea, according to aviation records held by the U.S. government. A website for the proposed Sea Pilot Academy, a business investment that Hawkins was considering, states: “Simon Kuijer is a top level flight instructor with thousands of hours experience in small aircrafts.”
Hawkins was a successful Guelph entrepreneur whose wealth provided him the means to achieve a childhood dream. In January 2012, he bought a used, single-engine airplane for $79,950 with co-owner Tracey Slater, who declined to be interviewed.
To become a pilot, Hawkins applied the same drive and focus that made him a fortune in online marketing ventures. He wrote and passed tests. He purchased a membership in a national aviation association. He flew 70 times between Feb. 2 and Oct. 22, gaining almost 100 hours of experience according to a copy of his logbook.
Transport Canada rewarded him with a pilot’s licence on June 21, 2012. His enthusiasm for flight rubbed off on son Justin, 23, who flew with Russ and who also took flight lessons from Kuijer.
Last September he installed amphibious floats to land the airplane on ground or water. He planned to fly to his business partner’s home on the water in Quebec. To earn a seaplane licence Hawkins needed seven hours of float training, including five hours of dual instruction with an instructor on board acting as the pilot in command.
According to a copy of his logbook, Hawkins recorded his first float training Oct. 13 with Kuijer. It lasted almost two hours out of the regional airport. Hawkins recorded Kuijer as the pilot in command, but never signed the logbook page to certify it as correct.
On Oct. 22 Hawkins recorded just over two more hours of float training. He flew to Orillia to train with instructor Jeff Mavor of Orillia Aviation, the firm that installed his floats. They practised takeoffs and landings (called circuits) on Lake St. John. Hawkins recorded Mavor as the pilot in command.
Elvira and the couple’s son Justin are demanding the government investigate the crash more fully, while they ponder legal options and deal with insurance issues the family will not discuss.
It feels to the Hawkins family as if the aviation community, rocked by six deaths in 11 months out of the Region of Waterloo International Airport, doesn’t want the whole story told.
“Normally you would debrief somebody and talk about the circuits and talk about what he did right, what he did wrong, where he could improve,” Mavor recalls. “He didn’t even give us a chance to do that. He was very quick at things. He was a very nice guy but just very quick, a busy guy.”
At the airport Hawkins chatted with Vito Perino, an aircraft maintenance engineer who works out of a nearby hangar. Perino recalls that Hawkins still had minor work to be done on his Cessna, including aligning the new floats.
“He seemed to be pretty happy with the airplane,” Perino recalls.
Around noon Hawkins met with Dale Bragdon, who owned the hangar that Hawkins leased.
“He was interested in building a group of hangars to lease out for an investment,” Bragdon recalls. “He was a very entrepreneurial guy, always shopping for new ideas.” They talked business for 30 minutes.
The Cessna had dual controls. Kuijer sat in the passenger seat from which he previously instructed Hawkins. They flew to Puslinch Lake east of Cambridge.
Ken Elligson watched them from inside a restaurant overlooking the lake.
“He’d land and then he’d taxi around the lake and then turn around into the wind and take off again,” Elligson recalls.
The final takeoff caught his attention. “We’re watching him taxi along and he didn’t seem to be slowing down. And I thought if he doesn’t slow down soon he’s going to hit the shore. And then at the last minute he took off again.
“Everybody said ‘Oh, I think that plane just crashed.’ ”
Kuijer spoke later to Ron Harper about the crash.
“There was a struggle,” Harper recalls being told. “Simon called it. He said, ‘You need to abort.’ Russ said, ‘No, I can make it.’
“Then (Russ) yanks on the yoke. So it’s flying, but just barely. Now he’s got trees to deal with. He pulls back more … Now it spirals down on its back into the hill.”
The Transportation Safety Board dispatched two investigators who reached the crash later in the day. They examined wreckage and interviewed the survivor and other witnesses to quickly conclude what went wrong.
“There was nothing wrong with the aircraft,” explains Peter Rowntree, regional senior investigator. “They didn’t get off the lake in time to clear the trees.”
“It’s human error,” Rowntree says. “We don’t get into blaming the pilot or anybody else. It’s a fact. They tried to take off from a point where success wasn’t guaranteed.”
Did Kuijer struggle with Hawkins to abort the doomed takeoff?
“I can’t confirm or deny that,” Rowntree says, saying Kuijer’s statement to investigators is confidential.
The safety board concluded its crash investigation with a published summary five sentences long:
C-GBLG, a Cessna 172 on amphibious floats, departed Kitchener (CYKF) on a local flight with the pilot and a passenger on board. At 13:56 EDT the aircraft proceeded to Puslinch Lake to conduct circuits on the lake.
After several successful circuits, at approximately 14:30 EDT while attempting another takeoff the aircraft struck trees and a power line on the southeast side of the lake and crashed into rising terrain. The pilot sustained fatal injuries and the passenger sustained minor injuries. Neither were wearing the optional shoulder harness.
A pending safety notice will urge aviators to wear their shoulder harnesses. Hawkins had a harness, but fastened only his lap belt. He smashed his head as the Cessna crashed upside-down.
“I don’t believe it would have been a fatal accident had he been wearing a shoulder harness,” says Don Enns, Ontario manager for the safety board.
. . .
The Hawkins family raises three key issues in demanding a full investigation:
• Why is the Transportation Safety Board not probing deeper as it did in examining two other fatal crashes out of the regional airport?
• Did the misaligned rudders that concerned Russ Hawkins contribute to the crash? Have mechanical causes been properly explored?
• Why do safety investigators call Simon Kuijer a passenger rather than instructor? Why was he unable to prevent the crash? Could he have taken control in the final seconds?
The safety board acknowledges that its crash summary does not reveal the qualifications of the survivor, is silent on any actions to avert the failed takeoff, and says nothing about regulatory issues raised by the flight. It denies this missing information makes the summary misleading.
“Because we didn’t proceed with a full investigation, therefore we have not written a full and comprehensive report as to what actually went on,” Rowntree says. “The details, although they’re brief, they essentially say what happened.”
Hawkins was not yet licensed to pilot on water by himself or with a passenger on board. He still needed an instructor with him to act as pilot in command. The safety board’s conclusion that Kuijer was not an instructor puts the fatal flight on the wrong side of regulations. Lawyers are now sorting through insurance implications.
The safety board acknowledges that 30 years ago it would have fully investigated to bring out all these details. Today it can’t justify a full investigation for a crash it readily explains as pilot error.
“With budget cutbacks we focus more on anything that’s got a safety issue,” Enns says. “This one here was pretty straightforward as to what happened. He misjudged his takeoff.
“We made the conscious decision that there was nothing that was systemic to the aviation industry that had to be looked at. It was explainable right there without going any deeper into it.”
On the day he died, Hawkins juggled his plans. In the early morning of Oct. 25 he cancelled a plan to fly to Orillia for more float instruction, citing gusty winds. He sent Mavor an email: “I’ll stay in Guelph and do some land circuits this morning.”
In the same email he complained that the water rudders steering his new floats were misaligned, causing a yaw (a side-to-side movement of the airplane nose). Hawkins asked if Orillia Aviation could correct the alignment and also complete cosmetic touch-ups. Mavor replied: “Any time you can leave (the Cessna) with us we will tidy up those snags.”
Hawkins went on to the regional airport. He was in touch with seaplane pilot Ron Harper about flying together. Harper lives on Puslinch Lake and was developing the Sea Pilot Academy (which is not operating) with Hawkins. But Harper couldn’t get to the airport until too late in the afternoon.
Just after 1 p.m., Hawkins departed the airport in his Cessna. By now he had arranged for Kuijer, a qualified float instructor, to join him. The Waterloo Wellington Flight Centre says it did not book the flight as it does not provide float instruction. The school would not comment further.
“He just barely cleared the trees on the shore. And when he got up above the trees, straight ahead of him up on the hill was a new house. He was headed for that house. He banked to the left to avoid the house and as soon as he banked to the left the plane just flipped over upside-down and went straight down into the trees.
The ready explanation helps the safety board distinguish the Hawkins crash from two other local crashes it is fully investigating.
“They were certainly more mysterious,” Rowntree says. The other crashes were also commercial flights, unlike the Hawkins crash which was deemed a private flight.
Investigators defend ruling out mechanical causes, despite never conducting an extended probe. They found flight controls in working order at the scene. Witness accounts, propeller damage, and the airplane’s success in getting airborne point to an engine producing enough power.
The misaligned float rudder that concerned Hawkins is “a minor deficiency” that just needed tweaking. “It’s not going to cause a crash,” Rowntree says.
Orillia Aviation installed the floats. “I flew that airplane,” owner Jeff Mavor recalls. “It was a great performer. It flew straight as a dime.”
Seaplane pilot Ron Harper is not persuaded. He thought the Cessna lumbered, watching it in flight.
“I was concerned with the performance of that plane,” he says.
The safety board says Kuijer told investigators he joined the fatal flight as an unpaid passenger.
“This is a touchy area for everyone,” Rowntree explains. “The person who was on board, yes, was a qualified flight instructor. But for this flight, to the best of our knowledge and the facts that we’ve gathered, he was on board as a passenger only and not a flight instructor.”
Rowntree figures Kuijer has “nothing to hide. Because there’s no implication to him either way whether he’s pilot in command or not. Planes with instructors on them have accidents all the time. These things happen. It’s a training environment.
“In the end, it doesn’t make any difference to the outcome of the flight whether he was pilot in command or not. It does on the legal side of things. We don’t care about the legal side of things. That’s not our jurisdiction.”
Yet the safety board understands a concern it did not address in its 87-word investigation. How did the airplane crash with a flight instructor on board?
Could Kuijer have taken control from Hawkins in the final seconds? Enns sees this as plausible even though it’s not what the safety board reported.
Transport Canada, which oversees flight regulations, responded to Record queries about Kuijer’s role by initiating a review of the crash. This will include fresh interviews.
“Transport Canada has embarked on a review of the information to determine if there were any violations of Canadian aviation regulations,” spokesperson Brooke Williams said. She would not comment further while the review is underway.
“It’s about time,” Elvira says. “I’m glad they’re doing another investigation. That should have been done the first time.”
Kuijer no longer works for the Waterloo Wellington flight school. He has not spoken to the Hawkins family about the crash.
While they grieve, Elvira and Justin remember how they first heard of the crash. As news spread in early confusion, it was not clear anyone died.
Though startled, Justin knew his father as a confident, able man.
“I thought I was just going to go pick him up from the hospital and it was going to be fine,” he recalls.
“My mom was crying on the phone and I was like, ‘Mom, don’t worry. This is Dad. This is Russ Hawkins here. He’s going to be fine. He’s always fine.’ ”
News services
When this happened, I'd wondered why they were attempting a downwind/crosswind take-off on a 5000' lake, towards the steepest terrain on the lake, in an amphib 172, on a warm day.
Guelph Mercury - Searching For Answers - Published May 10 , 2013
PUSLINCH — Elvira Hawkins circles the wreckage of her late husband’s small airplane. She pulls back a tarp to peer into the cabin where he died. It’s a dark mess of seats and wires.
Russ Hawkins, 47, was killed when his Cessna 172 crashed into the hilly shoreline of Puslinch Lake last October. He was practising to land and take off from water. A second man on board survived.
The wreckage is in pieces, stored in the corner of a Brantford hangar. The fuselage is dented. The nose cone is disfigured. Wings and tail are propped up against a wall. Damaged floats sit nearby, peeled back by the impact.
Elvira dabs her eyes, red and wet. It’s the first time she has seen the wreckage. The twisted metal seems small and hardly capable of flight.
The federal Transportation Safety Board, which investigates aviation crashes, closed its probe by saying Hawkins misjudged his takeoff and chose not to wear the shoulder harness that might have saved him.
But the Waterloo Region Record discovered there’s far more to the fatal crash than investigators have revealed in 87 words. Transport Canada initiated a review after the newspaper questioned the safety board investigation.
The safety investigation is silent on mechanical concerns raised before the crash. It does not reveal that the survivor is a flight instructor who was unable to prevent the crash. It does not reveal that the flight may have violated aviation regulations. It says nothing about a cockpit struggle alleged to have occurred in the final seconds in a failed bid to abort the takeoff.
“The investigation was so short and in my opinion brief,” Elvira complains. “A person died here. That’s somebody’s life.”
Simon Kuijer is polite but firm. He will not discuss the crash that killed Russ Hawkins.
Kuijer is the last person to see Hawkins alive. They were seated beside each other when the Cessna crashed. Kuijer suffered minor injuries.
“That was his dream all his life,” his widow Elvira says. “He always wanted to fly.”
“He would study things and examine things. He would consume himself with it,” business partner Robert Sigal explains.
Hawkins stored his 1979 Cessna at the regional airport east of Kitchener. Over nine months he spent more than $140,000 to refurbish it inside and out.
“He did fine,” Mavor recalls. “I was in control. Of course he was learning. He wasn’t ready to go solo.”
Hawkins quickly departed Orillia after the lesson ended.
Courtesy Hawkins family Russ Hawkins stands next to his plane, which he was in when it crashed near Puslinch Lake last October. Hawkins was killed and another man survived.
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“It’s almost like ‘Oh my God, we had six deaths in a year, so let’s brush off the last one. We don’t need more trouble,’ ” Elvira says. It pains her even more to be so suspicious.
“It’s a bit of a hard topic to talk about,” he says on the porch of a Georgetown townhouse. “He was a good friend of mine. And that’s about all I’d really like to say.”
The pair flew together a lot. Kuijer, an instructor with the Waterloo Wellington Flight Centre, gave Hawkins his first flying lesson on Feb. 2, 2012. After that they flew together 23 more times according to a pilot logbook kept by Hawkins. For all 24 flights, Hawkins named Kuijer as the pilot in command, while he recorded himself as the student co-pilot.
Kuijer is rated in Canada to pilot single and multi-engine aircraft on land and sea, according to aviation records held by the U.S. government. A website for the proposed Sea Pilot Academy, a business investment that Hawkins was considering, states: “Simon Kuijer is a top level flight instructor with thousands of hours experience in small aircrafts.”
Hawkins was a successful Guelph entrepreneur whose wealth provided him the means to achieve a childhood dream. In January 2012, he bought a used, single-engine airplane for $79,950 with co-owner Tracey Slater, who declined to be interviewed.
To become a pilot, Hawkins applied the same drive and focus that made him a fortune in online marketing ventures. He wrote and passed tests. He purchased a membership in a national aviation association. He flew 70 times between Feb. 2 and Oct. 22, gaining almost 100 hours of experience according to a copy of his logbook.
Transport Canada rewarded him with a pilot’s licence on June 21, 2012. His enthusiasm for flight rubbed off on son Justin, 23, who flew with Russ and who also took flight lessons from Kuijer.
Last September he installed amphibious floats to land the airplane on ground or water. He planned to fly to his business partner’s home on the water in Quebec. To earn a seaplane licence Hawkins needed seven hours of float training, including five hours of dual instruction with an instructor on board acting as the pilot in command.
According to a copy of his logbook, Hawkins recorded his first float training Oct. 13 with Kuijer. It lasted almost two hours out of the regional airport. Hawkins recorded Kuijer as the pilot in command, but never signed the logbook page to certify it as correct.
On Oct. 22 Hawkins recorded just over two more hours of float training. He flew to Orillia to train with instructor Jeff Mavor of Orillia Aviation, the firm that installed his floats. They practised takeoffs and landings (called circuits) on Lake St. John. Hawkins recorded Mavor as the pilot in command.
Elvira and the couple’s son Justin are demanding the government investigate the crash more fully, while they ponder legal options and deal with insurance issues the family will not discuss.
It feels to the Hawkins family as if the aviation community, rocked by six deaths in 11 months out of the Region of Waterloo International Airport, doesn’t want the whole story told.
“Normally you would debrief somebody and talk about the circuits and talk about what he did right, what he did wrong, where he could improve,” Mavor recalls. “He didn’t even give us a chance to do that. He was very quick at things. He was a very nice guy but just very quick, a busy guy.”
At the airport Hawkins chatted with Vito Perino, an aircraft maintenance engineer who works out of a nearby hangar. Perino recalls that Hawkins still had minor work to be done on his Cessna, including aligning the new floats.
“He seemed to be pretty happy with the airplane,” Perino recalls.
Around noon Hawkins met with Dale Bragdon, who owned the hangar that Hawkins leased.
“He was interested in building a group of hangars to lease out for an investment,” Bragdon recalls. “He was a very entrepreneurial guy, always shopping for new ideas.” They talked business for 30 minutes.
The Cessna had dual controls. Kuijer sat in the passenger seat from which he previously instructed Hawkins. They flew to Puslinch Lake east of Cambridge.
Ken Elligson watched them from inside a restaurant overlooking the lake.
“He’d land and then he’d taxi around the lake and then turn around into the wind and take off again,” Elligson recalls.
The final takeoff caught his attention. “We’re watching him taxi along and he didn’t seem to be slowing down. And I thought if he doesn’t slow down soon he’s going to hit the shore. And then at the last minute he took off again.
“Everybody said ‘Oh, I think that plane just crashed.’ ”
Kuijer spoke later to Ron Harper about the crash.
“There was a struggle,” Harper recalls being told. “Simon called it. He said, ‘You need to abort.’ Russ said, ‘No, I can make it.’
“Then (Russ) yanks on the yoke. So it’s flying, but just barely. Now he’s got trees to deal with. He pulls back more … Now it spirals down on its back into the hill.”
The Transportation Safety Board dispatched two investigators who reached the crash later in the day. They examined wreckage and interviewed the survivor and other witnesses to quickly conclude what went wrong.
“There was nothing wrong with the aircraft,” explains Peter Rowntree, regional senior investigator. “They didn’t get off the lake in time to clear the trees.”
“It’s human error,” Rowntree says. “We don’t get into blaming the pilot or anybody else. It’s a fact. They tried to take off from a point where success wasn’t guaranteed.”
Did Kuijer struggle with Hawkins to abort the doomed takeoff?
“I can’t confirm or deny that,” Rowntree says, saying Kuijer’s statement to investigators is confidential.
The safety board concluded its crash investigation with a published summary five sentences long:
C-GBLG, a Cessna 172 on amphibious floats, departed Kitchener (CYKF) on a local flight with the pilot and a passenger on board. At 13:56 EDT the aircraft proceeded to Puslinch Lake to conduct circuits on the lake.
After several successful circuits, at approximately 14:30 EDT while attempting another takeoff the aircraft struck trees and a power line on the southeast side of the lake and crashed into rising terrain. The pilot sustained fatal injuries and the passenger sustained minor injuries. Neither were wearing the optional shoulder harness.
A pending safety notice will urge aviators to wear their shoulder harnesses. Hawkins had a harness, but fastened only his lap belt. He smashed his head as the Cessna crashed upside-down.
“I don’t believe it would have been a fatal accident had he been wearing a shoulder harness,” says Don Enns, Ontario manager for the safety board.
. . .
The Hawkins family raises three key issues in demanding a full investigation:
• Why is the Transportation Safety Board not probing deeper as it did in examining two other fatal crashes out of the regional airport?
• Did the misaligned rudders that concerned Russ Hawkins contribute to the crash? Have mechanical causes been properly explored?
• Why do safety investigators call Simon Kuijer a passenger rather than instructor? Why was he unable to prevent the crash? Could he have taken control in the final seconds?
The safety board acknowledges that its crash summary does not reveal the qualifications of the survivor, is silent on any actions to avert the failed takeoff, and says nothing about regulatory issues raised by the flight. It denies this missing information makes the summary misleading.
“Because we didn’t proceed with a full investigation, therefore we have not written a full and comprehensive report as to what actually went on,” Rowntree says. “The details, although they’re brief, they essentially say what happened.”
Hawkins was not yet licensed to pilot on water by himself or with a passenger on board. He still needed an instructor with him to act as pilot in command. The safety board’s conclusion that Kuijer was not an instructor puts the fatal flight on the wrong side of regulations. Lawyers are now sorting through insurance implications.
The safety board acknowledges that 30 years ago it would have fully investigated to bring out all these details. Today it can’t justify a full investigation for a crash it readily explains as pilot error.
“With budget cutbacks we focus more on anything that’s got a safety issue,” Enns says. “This one here was pretty straightforward as to what happened. He misjudged his takeoff.
“We made the conscious decision that there was nothing that was systemic to the aviation industry that had to be looked at. It was explainable right there without going any deeper into it.”
On the day he died, Hawkins juggled his plans. In the early morning of Oct. 25 he cancelled a plan to fly to Orillia for more float instruction, citing gusty winds. He sent Mavor an email: “I’ll stay in Guelph and do some land circuits this morning.”
In the same email he complained that the water rudders steering his new floats were misaligned, causing a yaw (a side-to-side movement of the airplane nose). Hawkins asked if Orillia Aviation could correct the alignment and also complete cosmetic touch-ups. Mavor replied: “Any time you can leave (the Cessna) with us we will tidy up those snags.”
Hawkins went on to the regional airport. He was in touch with seaplane pilot Ron Harper about flying together. Harper lives on Puslinch Lake and was developing the Sea Pilot Academy (which is not operating) with Hawkins. But Harper couldn’t get to the airport until too late in the afternoon.
Just after 1 p.m., Hawkins departed the airport in his Cessna. By now he had arranged for Kuijer, a qualified float instructor, to join him. The Waterloo Wellington Flight Centre says it did not book the flight as it does not provide float instruction. The school would not comment further.
“He just barely cleared the trees on the shore. And when he got up above the trees, straight ahead of him up on the hill was a new house. He was headed for that house. He banked to the left to avoid the house and as soon as he banked to the left the plane just flipped over upside-down and went straight down into the trees.
The ready explanation helps the safety board distinguish the Hawkins crash from two other local crashes it is fully investigating.
“They were certainly more mysterious,” Rowntree says. The other crashes were also commercial flights, unlike the Hawkins crash which was deemed a private flight.
Investigators defend ruling out mechanical causes, despite never conducting an extended probe. They found flight controls in working order at the scene. Witness accounts, propeller damage, and the airplane’s success in getting airborne point to an engine producing enough power.
The misaligned float rudder that concerned Hawkins is “a minor deficiency” that just needed tweaking. “It’s not going to cause a crash,” Rowntree says.
Orillia Aviation installed the floats. “I flew that airplane,” owner Jeff Mavor recalls. “It was a great performer. It flew straight as a dime.”
Seaplane pilot Ron Harper is not persuaded. He thought the Cessna lumbered, watching it in flight.
“I was concerned with the performance of that plane,” he says.
The safety board says Kuijer told investigators he joined the fatal flight as an unpaid passenger.
“This is a touchy area for everyone,” Rowntree explains. “The person who was on board, yes, was a qualified flight instructor. But for this flight, to the best of our knowledge and the facts that we’ve gathered, he was on board as a passenger only and not a flight instructor.”
Rowntree figures Kuijer has “nothing to hide. Because there’s no implication to him either way whether he’s pilot in command or not. Planes with instructors on them have accidents all the time. These things happen. It’s a training environment.
“In the end, it doesn’t make any difference to the outcome of the flight whether he was pilot in command or not. It does on the legal side of things. We don’t care about the legal side of things. That’s not our jurisdiction.”
Yet the safety board understands a concern it did not address in its 87-word investigation. How did the airplane crash with a flight instructor on board?
Could Kuijer have taken control from Hawkins in the final seconds? Enns sees this as plausible even though it’s not what the safety board reported.
Transport Canada, which oversees flight regulations, responded to Record queries about Kuijer’s role by initiating a review of the crash. This will include fresh interviews.
“Transport Canada has embarked on a review of the information to determine if there were any violations of Canadian aviation regulations,” spokesperson Brooke Williams said. She would not comment further while the review is underway.
“It’s about time,” Elvira says. “I’m glad they’re doing another investigation. That should have been done the first time.”
Kuijer no longer works for the Waterloo Wellington flight school. He has not spoken to the Hawkins family about the crash.
While they grieve, Elvira and Justin remember how they first heard of the crash. As news spread in early confusion, it was not clear anyone died.
Though startled, Justin knew his father as a confident, able man.
“I thought I was just going to go pick him up from the hospital and it was going to be fine,” he recalls.
“My mom was crying on the phone and I was like, ‘Mom, don’t worry. This is Dad. This is Russ Hawkins here. He’s going to be fine. He’s always fine.’ ”
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Cat Driver
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Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
The safety board says Kuijer told investigators he joined the fatal flight as an unpaid passenger.
“This is a touchy area for everyone,” Rowntree explains. “The person who was on board, yes, was a qualified flight instructor. But for this flight, to the best of our knowledge and the facts that we’ve gathered, he was on board as a passenger only and not a flight instructor.”
Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
Though I have no knowledge of this event, other than what was reported, I am imagining it is less likely the result of deficiencies with the aircraft, or another pilot aboard. I have experienced a number of times, non aviation family and friends "looking for another reason" because "he was such a good pilot". Yes, good pilots have bad days too.
A second pilot aboard, particularly one confident in the skills of the pilot flying, might delay intervention, thinking that the pilot flying would notice and correct a situation which appears to be going bad. I myself have waited longer than I should have, to allow the other pilot to notice/recognize/correct. Then I realize that's not happening effectively, and have to really work at setting things right. This has lead me more to a self preservation attitude of: "Ah, you've noticed.... and have a plan, right?". Happily, this does not seem to have been received with offense when I have had to do it, and can be done with more subtly than "Oh my gawd! I've got it!!"
I have in the past, when flying with other pilots and not confident about the skills I am applying, said to that pilot: "I'm not really confident about this, so keep a close eye on me, and feel free to step in". They have paid more attention, but never intervened...
A second pilot aboard, particularly one confident in the skills of the pilot flying, might delay intervention, thinking that the pilot flying would notice and correct a situation which appears to be going bad. I myself have waited longer than I should have, to allow the other pilot to notice/recognize/correct. Then I realize that's not happening effectively, and have to really work at setting things right. This has lead me more to a self preservation attitude of: "Ah, you've noticed.... and have a plan, right?". Happily, this does not seem to have been received with offense when I have had to do it, and can be done with more subtly than "Oh my gawd! I've got it!!"
I have in the past, when flying with other pilots and not confident about the skills I am applying, said to that pilot: "I'm not really confident about this, so keep a close eye on me, and feel free to step in". They have paid more attention, but never intervened...
Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
Sept 9/13
"Transport Canada weighs in on Puslinch Lake plane crash"
http://www.cambridgetimes.ca/news-story ... ane-crash/
"Transport Canada weighs in on Puslinch Lake plane crash"
http://www.cambridgetimes.ca/news-story ... ane-crash/
Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
A slight downwind take-off tendency was developing for their takeoff trajectory according to the WX history data available, which would easily account for a difference between that particular take off run performance and all the others which had stronger takeoff performance (into a stronger wind) off that same lake earlier.
The loss in performance discussed in this article sounds like it could be just that. Confidence in a certain TODA from earlier in the day could lead fairly quickly to over-estimating it ... even when facing only a small relativewind reduction on this short lake than from the previous liftoff.
The loss in performance discussed in this article sounds like it could be just that. Confidence in a certain TODA from earlier in the day could lead fairly quickly to over-estimating it ... even when facing only a small relativewind reduction on this short lake than from the previous liftoff.
Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
Possibly dumb question: should it be the responsibility of every instructor (or maybe everyone acting as 'safety pilot') to ensure that their pilot is in fact qualified to carry you as a passenger? I mean, passengers trust that all the time but we know a little more about the system and safety and which way fingers are going to be pointed if it all goes pear-shaped, right?
This accident really makes me think back to some flights I've been on where I later (like, YEARS later) found out I was legally the PIC. Glad everything worked out on those, but I'm a lot more careful now.
LnS.
This accident really makes me think back to some flights I've been on where I later (like, YEARS later) found out I was legally the PIC. Glad everything worked out on those, but I'm a lot more careful now.
LnS.
Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
If this statement is true, then Mr. Hawkins had no business carrying a passenger.Mr. Hawkins was completing a float rating. The accident flight was to be his last one prior to qualifying.
If Mr. Kuijer, who as stated was an experienced flight instructor, he would have known that.......
Therefore it is not hard for me to conclude that Mr.Kuijer was acting as a flight instructor on that day......
Just my thoughts...
Dave
Last edited by GGCC on Sun Oct 20, 2013 4:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
Totally agree.GGCC wrote:If this statement is true, then Mr. Hawkins had no business carrying a passenger.Mr. Hawkins was completing a float rating. The accident flight was to be his last one prior to qualifying.
If Mr. Kuijer, who as stated was an experienced flight instructor, he would have known that.......
Therefore it is hard to conclude that Mr.Kuijer was not a flight instructor on that day......
Just my thoughts...
Dave
From the article: "Kuijer had instructed Hawkins on up to 24 previous flights, always acting as the pilot in command according to a logbook kept by Hawkins. "He stated that, on the flight that resulted in this accident, he was not the pilot in command, nor was he providing instruction to the deceased pilot," Transport Canada reports. "
??
Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
I read in the article that the "passenger/instructor" advised the pilot to reject the takeoff, but the pilot chose to continue. Advise to reject a takeoff is pretty close to instruction, when it is coming from the person who instructed you for your float rating!he was not the pilot in command, nor was he providing instruction to the deceased pilot," Transport Canada reports. "
A slight intensity change in the wind, including a change from headwind to tailwind, would affect takeoff distance on the water, but pilot technique could affect it more. Don Enns of the TSB knows just the right amount of investigation to apply to a crash like this one.
Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
It appears the owner was a very strong willed person. However I find it perlexing that a instructor who had time in the aircraft and had instructed this gentleman would sit there and allow the situation to develope to a tragic end.
Having spent many hours training I do appreciate how badly things can go........! But self presevation is very strong for me.
Sad.
Having spent many hours training I do appreciate how badly things can go........! But self presevation is very strong for me.
Sad.
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tedcuthbert
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Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
My guess as to why Kuijer was not acting as flight instructor on that day was that he did not have the required qualifications (50 hrs on floats) to do so, hence why Hawkins was getting instruction from Orillia Aviation towards his float rating. The previous instruction given by Kuijer to Hawking was in that aircraft but off a hard surface runway. Though Kuijer would have known it was illegal to be on board while Hawkins practiced take off & landings on water, they both may have agreed it was safer for him to be there as a "safety pilot". The irony here, is that without his extra weight on board that plane, it would have likely been able to clear the wires.
There was a video of the pre-accident takeoff run on a news clip and it clearly showed it was downwind, though all previous take-offs had been into the wind.
There was a video of the pre-accident takeoff run on a news clip and it clearly showed it was downwind, though all previous take-offs had been into the wind.
Re: Float Aircraft down near Puslinch Lake, ON Oct 25 2012
It was the highest temperature of the month in that hour at 24degC (CYKF area WX history 2-3pm Oct 25/2012) and fairly humid. A hundred feet above, the density altitude would have had to be higher than when still on the step lower down on the surface of the colder lake. A slightly different wind direction / speed above this lake, enclosed by tall trees growing on higher shoreline elevation, may not have been as evident by the existing waves when deciding the takeoff direction. So climbing off the step would have entered the considerably higher density altitude in the warmer air moving just above treetop level, while also losing performance with any decreasing relative-wind happening late in the takeoff run and after rotation.
