A pilot is lucky to be alive after the small plane he was flying crashed into the parking lot of an animal hospital in Courtenay, B.C.
Staff at the Comox Valley Animal Hospital say the plane clipped the building’s roof before crashing into the parking lot Saturday morning.
“We were just having our regular Saturday morning, and then there was a very loud, what I thought was an explosion, but it was just the sound of impact,” said veterinarian Dave MacDonald.
“We heard a giant boom and the whole place shook, and the lights flickered,” said Kelly Dewar, a veterinary assistant.
They said the single-engine plane smashed into two cars before coming to a stop.
According to witnesses, the pilot was remarkably conscious and communicating as he was loaded into an ambulance and taken to hospital, saying the plane had lost power.
The Transportation Safety has confirmed that’s exactly what happened – the pilot’s engine failed, leaving him little time to return to a nearby airport.
“It had the potential to be very, very bad,” said Comox Valley RCMP Const. Duncan McGeorge. “It’s a miracle that nobody was in the car, and that it crashed into a parking lot that nobody happened to be in.”
The extent of the pilot’s injuries and his identity remains unknown. Hospital staff said no one else was injured.
The plane, which is registered to a local lawyer, was virtually destroyed.
The TSB has assumed conduct of an investigation into what went wrong.
With a report from CTV Vancouver's Sarah MacDonald
