2009P0593
Date: 2009/05/14
Location: Hope, BC
Fatalities: 1
Injuries:
CADORS: 2009P0593
TSB: A09P0116
TSB O/C: 5
Working: No
News: Link no longer available
Pilot dies in crash
Hope Standard
Updated May 19, 2009
A pilot known as being meticulous in his safety procedures was killed Thursday, May 14, when his powered glider became ensnared in telephone lines, across from the J’s Husky truck stop just west of Hope.
Hope Search and Rescue was called in to assist the coroner in removing the man’s body from the small power-glider which after the crash remained suspended off the ground entangled in the wires.
Bill Brimacombe, a truck driver from Burnaby, witnessed the accident from inside the restaurant. The glider, said Brimacombe, “came in low over the trees” alongside the railway tracks that run parallel to Flood-Hope Road.
“Then a gust of wind caught him and tossed him into the power lines…. And the power lines sucked him head-on right into the (telephone) pole.”
The Hope region is a favourite flying location for glider pilots for its westerly winds and the Hope Airpark is home to the Vancouver Soaring Association.
Brimacombe said it appears the pilot was heading to the airpark just a kilometer east of the crash scene, when a heavy gust of wind may have blown him off course. Once off course, Brimacombe says that it appeared as if the pilot was trying to land on Flood-Hope Road.
The crashed glider was taken to the Hope Airpark and was examined by police and Transportation Safety Board inspectors, Friday.
The investigation into the crash is continuing.
The name of the pilot has not been released by police as of Tuesday, May 19. The pilot was reportedly a retired armed forces and commercial pilot, who leaves behind a wife, son and daughter.
